A Republican congressman responded to Ilhan Omar’s expression of regret over the attack on the US Capitol on Friday by comparing it to the 9/11 attacks.
A policeman was killed when a suspect hit him and another policeman with his car outside the Capitol on Friday. The suspect wielded a knife and was shot dead. The other policeman hit by the car survived.
The attack came less than three months after supporters of Donald Trump attacked the Capitol on January 6, trying to annul the election. A policeman was one of five people who died as a direct result.
Omar was on the Capitol that day. In January, she told the Guardian that she “didn’t know if I could do it” and called her ex-husband “to make sure he would continue to tell my kids that I loved them if I couldn’t.”
Security was tightened and Friday’s attack caused confusion and fear.
Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, tweeted: “Heartbroken to learn another [police officer] was killed while protecting the Capitol. My thoughts and prayers go to the official’s family and the entire Capitol police force. The death toll would have been worse if the attacker had an AR-15 [assault rifle] instead of a knife. “
In response, Congressman Greg Murphy of North Carolina wrote: “It would have been worse if they were flying planes against buildings as well.”
Omar, who came to the United States as a child from Somalia, is one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress.
Murphy was widely scolded.
“You just invoked 9/11 to attack a Muslim member of Congress,” wrote North Carolina state senator Jeff Jackson, a Democrat. “I met you a little while you were in the state legislature. This is right below you. No matter how strongly you disagree with it in politics, you must represent our state better than that. “
Robert S. McCaw, director of government affairs for the Council on Islamic Relations (CAIR), said Murphy’s tweet was “disrespectful to the victims of the 9/11 attacks, their families and countless Muslims and other minority victims. hate crimes that were targeted in the aftermath of September 11. Their prejudiced comments serve only to perpetuate the climate of hatred that we are witnessing across the country. ”
McCaw also said he hoped “Murphy’s Republican colleagues will condemn this Islamophobic attack and not just look the other way as they did when Muslim members of Congress were similarly attacked in the past.”
The tweet was deleted.
A Charlotte TV station, WITN, reported that Murphy tweeted and deleted it earlier. In October, he called now Vice President Kamala Harris “a walking disaster … just chosen for his color and race … is that how we choose our leaders now in America?”
Murphy did not immediately comment.
On Saturday, however, a Twitter user responding to a congressman’s tweet about Covid and immigration told Murphy he followed “Typical [Republican] MO. Never take the right path. Never provide a solution to the problem. ALWAYS foster division. “
“Awww,” replied Murphy, who was a physician before entering Congress and worked as a missionary physician. “Sorry, I triggered you …”