(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump called on first-year Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar to resign from Congress over anti-Semitic tweets.
“Anti-Semitism has no place” in Congress, Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
He called Omar’s apology “lame” and said “I think she should resign from Congress.”
Trump never apologized for his remarks following a violent August 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, staged by white supremacists defending a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. One counter-protester was killed in the fracas.
The president said there were “very fine people on both sides” of the rally, drawing criticism from Democrats and Republicans.
Omar issued an apology on Monday after suggesting in tweets that U.S. support for Israel was influenced by money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobby group. She was criticized by her party’s leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes,” Omar of Minnesota wrote on Twitter. “At the same time, I reaffirm the problematic role of lobbyists in our politics, whether it be AIPAC, the NRA or the fossil fuel industry.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Margaret Talev in Washington at mtalev@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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