A Republican congressman responded to Ilhan Omar’s expression of grief over Friday’s attack on the Capitol by comparing it to the 9/11 attacks.
A police officer was killed when a suspect rammed into him and another officer with his car in front of the Capitol on Friday. The suspect wielded a knife and was shot. The other officer hit by the car survived.
The attack came less than three months after supporters of Donald Trump attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 to reverse the election. A police officer was one of five people who died as a direct result.
Omar was at the Capitol that day. In January, she told the Guardian she ‘didn’t know if I was going to make it’ and that she called her ex-husband ‘to make sure he would keep telling my kids I loved them if I couldn’t figure it out ”.
Security has been raised and the attack on Friday has caused confusion and fear.
Omar, a Democrat from Minnesota, tweeted, “Heartbroken to teach another [police officer] was killed while protecting the Capitol. My thoughts and prayers go out to the officer’s family and the entire Capitol Police Department. The death toll would have been worse if the attacker had owned 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 had also flew planes into the buildings.”
Omar, who came to the US from Somalia as a child, is one of the first two Muslim women to be elected to Congress.
Murphy was widely reprimanded.
“You just called on Sept. 11 to attack a Muslim member of Congress,” wrote Senator Jeff Jackson, a Democrat of the state of North Carolina. “I knew you a little bit when you were in the legislature. This is way below you. No matter how strongly you disagree with her on the policy, you must represent our state better than this. “
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 September 11 attacks, their families and the numerous victims of hate crime committed by Muslims and other minorities targeted in the aftermath of 9/11. His bigoted remarks only serve to perpetuate the climate of hatred we are witnessing nationwide. “
McCaw also said he hoped that “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 has been deleted.
A Charlotte TV station, WITN, reported that Murphy has previously tweeted and deleted. In October, he now called Vice President Kamala Harris “an ongoing disaster … chosen only for her color and her race … is that how we choose our leaders in America now?”
Murphy did not immediately comment.
However, on Saturday, a Twitter user responded to a congressman tweet about Covid and immigration told Murphy he followed. “Typical [Republican] MO. Never take the highway. Never offer a solution to the problem. ALWAYS stir up division. “
“Awww,” replied Murphy, who was a physician before going to Congress and working as a medical missionary. “Sorry to trigger you …”