Rep. Omar blasts Rep. Boebert for Islamophobia before cutting call short

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar hung up on Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert after what both congresswomen described as a tense phone call on Monday morning.

The two lawmakers scheduled the call to discuss a video that surfaced in which Boebert appears to suggest that her Democratic counterpart is a terrorist, The Hill reported.

"We’re going back to my office, and we get in the elevator, and I see a Capitol Police officer running, hurriedly, to the elevator. I see fret all over his face, and he’s reaching. And I’m like the door is shutting, I can’t open it, what’s happening?" Boebert said in the video. "I look to my left, and there she is. Ilhan Omar. And I said, well, she doesn’t have a backpack, we should be fine."

Over the Thanksgiving break, Lauren Boebert said she was recently in a Capitol elevator with Ilhan Omar when a fretful Capitol police officer ran up.

Lauren Boebert said: “Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine.”

Boebert then referred to Ilhan Omar as part of the “jihad squad.” pic.twitter.com/Y7f0nFbnud

— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) November 25, 2021

Boebert said she organized the call with Omar after reflecting on her previous remarks, noting her Christian faith as a catalyst for the apology she offered in a Tweet last Friday which said "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."

Following Monday's phone call between the two congresswomen, Boebert said, "Now as a strong, Christian woman who values faith deeply, I never want anything I say to offend someone's religion. So I told her that. Even after I put out a public statement to that effect, she said that she still wanted a public apology because what I had done wasn't good enough. So I reiterated to her what I had just said," Boebert noted. 

"She kept asking for a public apology so I told Ilhan Omar that she should make a public apology to the American people for her anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-police rhetoric. She continued to press and I continued to press back. And then, Representative Omar hung up on me." 

In a separate statement, Omar blamed Boebert for how the call unfolded and confirmed that she had indeed hung up on her Republican colleague.

"Today I graciously accepted a call from Rep. Lauren Boebert in the hope of receiving a direct apology for falsely claiming she met me in an elevator, suggesting I was a terrorist, and for a history of anti-Muslim hate," Omar said in a statement. 

"Instead of apologizing for her Islamophobic comments and fabricated lies, Rep. Boebert refused to publicly acknowledge her hurtful and dangerous comments. She instead doubled down on her rhetoric and I decided to end the unproductive call." 

Boebert, however, made her position clear by suggesting that Omar is soft on terrorism.  

"Make no mistake, I will continue to fearlessly put America first, never sympathizing with terrorists. Unfortunately, Ilhan can't say the same thing. And our country is worse off for it," Boebert said.