April 14, 2019

Pelosi Condemns Trump’s 9/11 Attack on Ilhan Omar: His “Rhetoric Creates Real Danger”

The top Democrat called on the president to remove his viral video.

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday denounced President Donald Trump’s recent video attack against Rep. Ilhan Omar, which combined remarks given by Omar during a Muslim civil rights event with graphic images of the attacks on September 11th, and demanded that the president remove the video from his social media account.

In a statement, Pelosi announced that she had spoken to the Sergeant-at-Arms to “ensure that Capitol Police are conducting a security assessment to safeguard” Omar, her staff, and family members.

“The President’s words weigh a ton, and his hateful and inflammatory rhetoric creates real danger,” the top Democrat added. “President Trump must take down his disrespectful and dangerous video.”

The statement on Sunday follows a more muted response by Pelosi, who just the day before had criticized the president’s use of September 11th but failed to specifically defend Omar by name. Pelosi’s newest statement comes as more Democrats, including a wide range of candidates, slammed the president for taking Omar’s brief reference to 9/11 in a speech out of context in order to give the impression that the Minnesota congresswoman was trivializing the attacks. 

“He has no moral authority to be talking about 9/11 at all,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler said during an appearance on CNN Sunday morning. “She was talking about discrimination against Muslim Americans,” Nadler told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “And she just said that, after that happened, it was used as an excuse for lots of discrimination and for withdrawal of civil liberties.”

Exactly one week before Trump’s video attack, federal prosecutors revealed that a man had been arrested and charged with making death threats against Omar. According to law enforcement officials, the man described himself as a patriot who loves Trump and hates “radical Muslims in our government.”

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate