Rep. Jamaal Bowman late Tuesday urged the House Democratic leadership to remove GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert from her committee assignments and take "all other appropriate measures" in response to the Colorado Republican's latest bigoted attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar.
"The cultural climate under Trump laid the foundation for and created a dangerous precedent that has emboldened members of the Trump Party to launch blatantly Islamophobic and xenophobic attacks on Congresswoman Omar and others simply because of who they pray to and what they look like, Bowman (D-N.Y.) said in a statement released days after Boebert called Omar a member of the "jihad squad" in a speech on the House floor.
"We cannot pretend this hate speech from leading politicians doesn't have real consequences."
Shortly following her floor remarks, Boebert suggested during a campaign event that Omar is a terrorist, telling a story about an encounter at the U.S. Capitol that Omar said never happened. Since footage of Boebert's remarks surfaced late last week, reporters havehighlighted another video in which the Colorado Republican tells a different version of the Islamophobic story.
"Saying I am a suicide bomber is no laughing matter. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) need to take appropriate action," Omar tweeted last week. "Normalizing this bigotry not only endangers my life but the lives of all Muslims. Anti-Muslim bigotry has no place in Congress."
Bowman echoed that message in his statement Tuesday. "The fact is that Congresswoman Omar is a Black, immigrant, and visibly Muslim woman with powerand this is too much to handle for people who refuse to live in a society that celebrates diversity and abhors white supremacy," the New York Democrat said.
"The question that we as leaders are called to answer is whether we will tolerate this kind of vile behavior and learn from history in order to protect our future," Bowman added. "I, for one, will work to root out Islamophobia and discrimination of any kind, and implore my colleagues to join me in saying enough is enough."
"Im urging House leadership to hold Lauren Boebert accountable," he continued, "by removing her from her committee assignments, advancing a resolution of condemnation, and taking all other appropriate measures to ensure our message that Islamophobia, anti-Blackness, and xenophobia will not stand is loud and clear."
Boebert currently sits on the House Committee on Natural Resources, the Subcommittee on Indigenous Peoples of the United States, the Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife, and the Committee on the Budget.
Bowman's statement came after Omar held a press conference during which she played a voicemail recording of a death threat her office received following the Minnesota Democrat'sphone conversation with Boebert on Monday.
"When a sitting member of Congress calls a colleague a member of the 'jihad squad' and falsifies a story to suggest I will blow up the Capitol, it is not just an attack on me but on millions of American Muslims across the country," Omar said Tuesday. "We cannot pretend this hate speech from leading politicians doesn't have real consequences."
As Omar and her progressive colleagues continue to demand that Boebert be held accountable for her bigoted comments, the House Democratic leadership is reportedly discussing a resolution condemning Islamophobia. According toAxios, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) "hasn't taken more severe measures off the table."
Asked about a possible effort to censure Boebert, McCarthywho has repeatedly shown a willingness to reward his members for grotesque behaviorsaid Tuesday that he would "vote against it."
