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What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Listening to Ilhan Omar

What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Daily News

4.32.4K Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2019

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Back in March, Rep. Ilhan Omar spoke passionately about pro-Israel political forces that “push for allegiance to a foreign country.” She later apologized for unwittingly deploying an anti-Semitic trope. Why were Omar’s words so triggering? And is she making a fair point? 

Guest: Slate economics & policy writer Jordan Weissmann. 

This episode originally aired in March 2019. 

Podcast production by Mary Wilson and Jayson De Leon.


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey there, this is Henry Grubar. What Next is on vacation? And they asked me to pick a favorite episode for an encore.

0:06.5

I like this one from March about Ilhan Omar and anti-Semitism. It feels particularly relevant right now in the wake of President Donald Trump convincing Israel to bar Representative Omar and her colleague, Congresswoman Rashida Talib, of Detroit, from entering Israel.

0:24.0

Here's the show.

0:30.2

Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has become well known for a couple of things, being the first woman to wear a hijab on the floor of Congress,

0:38.4

and making off-the-cuff comments that question the U.S. relationship with Israel.

0:42.6

The backlash over this tweet, she had tweeted, quote, it's all about the Benjamin's baby,

0:48.2

and it was her response.

0:49.0

This weekend at a Washington, D.C. bookstore.

0:51.4

She was trying to defend what she said, point out how labeling her comments

0:55.9

as anti-Semitic can be a distraction.

0:58.1

Because we end up defending that and nobody ever gets to have the broader debate of what is

1:04.2

happening with Palestine.

1:06.7

And then she slipped up again.

1:10.1

I want to talk about the political influence in this country. I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay for people

1:17.4

to push for allegiance to a foreign country.

1:21.3

She says allegiance to a foreign country.

1:24.4

Four words.

1:25.5

Just a couple of seconds of a 10-minute speech. If this event weren't being

1:29.4

streamed on Facebook, we might have never heard these four words again. Instead, here we are.

1:35.9

It's about Congressman Ilhan Omar, who has a panoply of a canard of anti-Semitic ideas.

1:42.4

Do the Democrats have a problem with anti-Semitism?

1:45.1

She supports enemies of America and doesn't look herself in the mirror and say, my God, if I'm

...

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