Twenty-three Republicans voted against a House resolution condemning “antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism and other forms of bigotry” that was passed by 407 of their colleagues of both political parties.
But few expect the US political and news media apparatus to shift into outrage mode over the refusal of so many Republican lawmakers to publicly disavow something so abhorrent as plain, old-fashioned bigotry and racism.
Where’s the outrage over the 23 GOP members who voted NO on a resolution condemning bigotry today?
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 8, 2019
Oh, there’s none?
Did they get called out, raked over, ambushed in halls and relentlessly asked why not?
No? Okay. Got it.
Republicans are voting against a non binding resolution against bigotry which tbh is pretty on brand.
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) March 7, 2019
Republicans who voted against the resolution have been busy justifying their vote on Friday, with some placing their stand against anti-racism in the context of seeking to focus on condemning Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s criticism of the pro-Israel lobby, which has been labeled by some as antisemitic.
The House Republican conference chair, Liz Cheney, called the vote “a sham put forward by Democrats to avoid condemning one of their own and denouncing vile antisemitism.”
Other dissident Republicans also took umbrage with the resolution not mentioning Omar by name.
I voted NO on the ridiculous resolution that purported to condemn speech that is not at issue. Rep. Omar has made specific multiple anti-Jewish statements. The resolution failed to mention her or her statements. So I will: I condemn anti-Jewish hate speech by Rep. Omar. pic.twitter.com/GRkS0PtHNZ
— Paul Gosar (@DrPaulGosar) March 7, 2019
But some had different ideas, portraying their refusal to condemn bigotry as a defense of white people. Congressman Mo Brooks of Alabama released a statement in which he said he could not sign on to a vote that did not include discrimination against Caucasians and Christians.
“The failure to specifically state opposition to discrimination against Caucasian-Americans and Christians, while reflective of Socialist Democrat priorities and values, is, by omission, fatal to the bill,” he said.
Others, like the New York congressman Peter King, had even less inclusive ideas about what the anti-bigotry measure should have mentioned: namely, cops.
Rep Pete King said one of the reasons he voted against the resolution is bc it didn’t mention police being targeted, only mentioned police targeting others.
— Daniel Newhauser (@dnewhauser) March 7, 2019
“There were more cops killed than Pacific Islanders” last year, he said
Nowhere in any of their statements were any mention of the long history of bigotry and antisemitism from Republicans, or, indeed the Islamophobia and racism some see lying at the heart of the entire Omar ordeal.
The Iowa Republican Steve King, who among many other things in a prolific history of racist statements, lamented back in January that “white nationalist” had become a pejorative, simply voted “present”. King was stripped of his House committee seats that month after Republicans looked the other way at his behavior for years.
A reminder that Rep. Matt Gaetz brought a Holocaust denier to the State of the Union address. He's upset by anti-Semitism. https://t.co/tH33HaZnCo
— (((JonathanWeisman))) (@jonathanweisman) March 7, 2019
Congressman Matt Gaetz used his time during debate on the issue of bigotry to defend Donald Trump against allegations of Russian collusion. Not mentioned was his recently hosting a Holocaust denier and infamous alt-right troll at the State of the Union address as a personal guest.
“It is an insult to the memories of those killed in the Holocaust, to their families, and to the Jewish community to bring to the State of the Union as your guest a Holocaust denier,” the Anti-Defamation League wrote in a letter to Gaetz at the time.
Nor did any Republicans bring up the president’s own history of racist and antisemitic statements, like saying there were “very fine people on both sides” after a violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, or his lengthy record of trafficking in Jewish stereotypes and frequent use of dehumanizing references to immigrants coming to “infest” the country.
In short the Republican backlash to something seemingly so anodyne and harmless as an anti-bigotry resolution revealed to many critics what some Republicans were actually after: punishing Omar specifically, not simply because of what she said, but because of her ethnic and religious identity while saying it.
So just to be clear: A Somali-American Democrat engages in repeated anti-Semitism, and Democrats pass a resolution that condemns "white supremacists" (and gets in a reference to Charlottesville).
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) March 7, 2019
But Omar actually voted for the resolution condemning antisemitism and other forms of bigotry, unlike her 23 Republican detractors. Something that may have turned the whole affair from a Democratic crisis into a Republican backfire.
What an utterly bizarre backfire. This was supposed to be awkward for Democrats because it was an unofficial rebuke of Rep. Ilhan Omar.
— Paul McLeod (@pdmcleod) March 7, 2019
Yet in the end Omar voted to condemn anti-Semitism and 26 Republicans (and counting) voted not to.
