Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., offered a half-hearted apology for a caught-on-video joke in which she branded fellow member of Congress Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a suspected suicide bomber.
The far right-wing lawmaker Friday claimed she wanted to call Omar about the video, in which she suggested being uncomfortable sharing an elevator at the Capitol with the Somali-born U.S. congresswoman.
“I apologize to anyone in the Muslim community I offended with my comment about Rep. Omar,” Boebert tweeted. “I have reached out to her office to speak with her directly.”
Boebert called the issue a “unnecessary distraction” and said she wants to get back to policy debates.
“There are plenty of policy differences to focus on,” Boebert said.
The staunch supporter of President Donald Trump failed to simply apologize directly to Omar, raising the possibility that she thinks there was some excuse for her Islamophobic jibe.
The slur against Omar surfaced during a videotaped meeting with a group of supporters when she claimed to recall inadvertently interacting with Omar at the Capitol.
Boebert said she was shocked to spot a police officer rushing toward an elevator. That’s when she noticed Omar, whom she claimed was the target of the officer’s concern.
“I see a Capitol Police officer running hurriedly to the elevator. Stress is written all over his face,” she said. “That’s when I look to my left and I see Ilhan Omar.”
Boebert suggested that the cop might have been worried Omar could be a suicide bomber.
“Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine,” Boebert said, drawing guffaws from the all-white gathering of her supporters.
She went on to label Omar as a member of the “jihad squad,” an insult combining Omar’s Muslim faith and her political alliance with the progressive so-called Squad founded by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
Omar, one of two Muslim women to ever serve in Congress, accused Boebert of making up the entire incident and being a brazen anti-Muslim bigot who refuses to make eye contact with her if they cross paths.
“Sad she thinks bigotry gets her clout,” Omar said. “Anti-Muslim bigotry isn’t funny & shouldn’t be normalized.”
Omar did not immediately respond to Boebert’s half-baked apology.
There was no immediate word on whether Boebert would face any disciplinary action for her racist remarks.
MAGA ally Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., was censured by the Democratic-held House of Representatives for posting an anime video showing him killing AOC. But Republicans rallied around him.
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