Kevin McCarthy Catches Blowback For Forcing Boebert To Apologize
Colorado Republican manufactured story about Rep Ilhan Omar
His grip on potentially being elevated to House speaker already tenuous, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is catching flak from fellow Republicans for apparently forcing Republican Rep Lauren Boebert, of Colorado, to apologize to a Democratic congresswoman.
McCarthy, of California, has made it plain that he has aspirations to takeover as House speaker, if Republicans retake the House majority next year.
However, it's not at all clear that he has support within his own party to achieve that, and gaining that backing appears to have been the motivation behind McCarthy's disjointed — and at times — vaguely incoherent eight-plus-hour speaking marathon last week ahead of House passage of major Democratic spending legislation.
But despite that dearth of support, McCarthy seems to have leaned on Boebert to issue an apology for trying to smear Rep Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) with a false and Islamophobic account of an episode which Boebert fabricated in her imagination.
And McCarthy is taking incoming over it.
“What did @laurenboebert say wrong? I see some hypocrisy here - the left can say whatever they want and @SpeakerPelosi backs them. @GOPLeader you should stand up for Lauren's original statements. NEVER apologize to the Communists. This is why I support @DrPaulGosar for speaker,” tweeted Wendy Rogers, a right-wing Republican state senator from Arizona.
Paul Gosar, a Republican congressman from Arizona and stalwart supporter of Donald Trump's, was recently censured and stripped of his committee assignments for posting online content which depicts violence and death against Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and President Biden.
Boebert publicized an episode involving Omar — a member of the progressive group known as “the Squad” — which apparently was entirely a falsehood and made-up by Boebert.
Omar, who has had to face smears from Boebert in the past, would not let Boebert's falsehood stand — fact-checking Boebert on social media.
“Fact, this buffoon looks down when she sees me at the Capitol, this whole story is made up. Sad she thinks bigotry gets her clout. Anti-Muslim bigotry isn’t funny & shouldn’t be normalized. Congress can’t be a place where hateful and dangerous Muslims tropes get no condemnation,” Omar posted.
“I apologize to anyone in the Muslim community I offended with my comment about Rep. Omar. I have reached out to her office to speak with her directly. There are plenty of policy differences to focus on without this unnecessary distraction,” Boebert wrote Friday.
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