'The View' hosts defend Ilhan Omar remarks comparing US to terrorists: 'Depends on who you talk to'
GOP House Speaker nominee Kevin McCarthy said he wanted to remove Democrats like Rep. Omar from House committees
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The View" hosts Sunny Hostin and Whoopi Goldberg appeared to defend previous remarks made by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., comparing the U.S. to the Taliban and Hamas, and said it "depends on who you talk to."
"What I was disappointed with was sort of the tropes, he constantly attacks Ilhan Omar," Hostin said, referring to Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. "And yes, she made that comment, the all about the Benjamins comment and then Nancy Pelosi pulled her, you know, coat tail and said, ‘Let me tell you something, that’s something that you’re going to apologize for,’ and she did apologize."
Hostin noted that the Democratic congresswoman has not said anything like that again and declared that she was more popular in her district than McCarthy is in his. Co-host Sara Haines said Omar compared "the U.S., Israel, Hamas and the Taliban as all terrorist organizations" in 2021.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"She has maybe way more knowledge and experience in the very complicated Middle Eastern relations, but I did find, that being on a foreign committee and comparing the country to a terrorist, known terrorists, those are organized terrorist communities, not Israel, but Hamas and the Taliban …" Haines continued.
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Sunny Hostin on "The View" on Nov. 22, 2022. (Screenshot/ABC/TheView)
Both Hostin and Goldberg said it "depends on who you talk to."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Haines continued to say that these were recognized terrorist organizations and co-host Joy Behar added that they were recognized in "this country" as terrorist organizations. Hostin argued that while talking about the Middle East, they need to have "experts" and a person from Palestine as well as someone who is Muslim involved in these discussions.
"There have been votes she’s voted on some of that plays into, there were actually in Syria and the Armenians that were killed, it was a genocide, she voted present which is essentially voting no and so she talks a lot about the people being massacred, but then there's been two votes where she wasn’t voting in a way that I would want someone on that committee to vote," Haines said.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)
The hosts reacted to Rep. Kevin McCarthy's statement that he wanted to remove Rep Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from committee assignments over "antisemitism" if he becomes speaker of the House. He also said he would remove Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said she agreed and believed Omar should not serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Hostin also said Omar had a different understanding of geopolitics.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Rep. Ilhan Omar speaks on April 30, 2019, at the U.S. Capitol. (Olivier Douliery/Abacapress.com)
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Omar and Swalwell responded to McCarthy's pledge and said
"From the moment I was elected, the Republican Party has made it their mission to use fear, xenophobia, Islamophobia and racism to target me on the House floor and through millions of dollars of campaign ads," Omar said. "McCarthy’s effort to repeatedly single me out for scorn and hatred — including threatening to strip me from my committee — does nothing to address the issues our constituents deal with. It does nothing to address inflation, health care or solve the climate crisis."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News' Haris Alic contributed to this report.