Democrats, Twitter and the national news media offered plenty of outrage Thursday over Rep. Ilhan Omar’s description of 9/11 as a day when “some people did something.” But they directed it entirely at The Post’s front page for exposing and highlighting Omar’s cavalier words.
About the remark itself: total silence, with a few terse “no comments” from Democrats.
Omar, echoed by her allies, played the victim, accusing us of “incitement.” Others claimed we took her remark “out of context.”
Here’s the relevant passage of her 20-minute speech to the Council of American-Islamic Relations: “CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.”
What’s out of context? She claimed that Muslim civil liberties suffered as a result of the nation’s reaction to 9/11 — even as she completely, intentionally disregarded the grim facts of that day.
Indeed, Omar’s responsible for the only thing “out of context” here: CAIR was founded in 1994, long before 9/11.
The saddest excuse-making came from a Washington Post “fact-checker” who compared Omar’s words to President George W. Bush’s “Bullhorn Speech” to rescue workers at Ground Zero three days after 9/11: “The people who knocked down these buildings will hear all of us soon!”
Talk about context: Omar minimized 9/11 to charge it prompted a supposed mass violation of civil rights. Bush was at the scene of the heinous crime, directly warning the perpetrators that they’d pay.
As for “incitement”: Neither The Post nor Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), who questioned Omar’s word choice on Twitter, threatened her or called for violence.
Omar and her supporters simply want to stifle debate by declaring any criticism of her to be out of bounds.
And Democrats are playing along, either echoing the “out of context” excuse or just staying silent. It’s even worse than their failed effort to condemn her remarks accusing American Jews of dual loyalty and of buying political support for Israel.
The dodges may play well on Twitter, but we suspect most Americans will remain appalled.