Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., thanked those who came out in support of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., after President Trump tweeted a video edited to suggest that the Minnesota congresswoman was dismissive of the significance of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S.
Ocasio-Cortez, 29, called on members of Congress to respond to Trump’s “explicit attack today.”
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“Ilhan Omar’s life is in danger. For our colleagues to be silent is to be complicit in the outright, dangerous targeting of a member of Congress. We must speak out,” she tweeted Friday.
The freshman congresswoman thanked Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for applauding Omar’s “strength and courage.”
“She won’t back down to Trump’s racism and hate, and neither will we. The disgusting and dangerous attacks against her end,” Sanders tweeted.
Ocasio-Cortez then thanked Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., for calling out others who refused to condemn Trump’s video.
“The President is inciting against a sitting Congresswoman – and an entire group of Americans based on their religion. It’s disgusting. It’s shameful. And any elected leader who refuses to condemn it shares responsibility for it,” Warren tweeted.
“Thank you for standing up for all of us, Sen. Elizabeth Warren,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
The New York congresswoman retweeted comments from others who defended Omar including 2020 presidential contender Julian Castro and Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-N.Y. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi commented on Trump's video, saying "The president shouldn't use the painful images of 9/11 for a political attack."
“As we visit our troops in Stuttgart to thank them and be briefed by them, we honor our first responsibility as leaders to protect and defend the American people. It is wrong for the President, as Commander-in-Chief, to fan the flames to make anyone less safe," Pelosi said in a statement.
Trump’s video pulled a snippet of Omar’s speech last month to the Council on American-Islamic Relations in which she described the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center as "some people did something," as well as news footage of the hijacked planes hitting the towers. Trump on Friday tweeted, "WE WILL NEVER FORGET!"
In the speech, Omar, who is one of the first Muslim women to serve in Congress, told CAIR in Los Angeles that many Muslims saw their civil liberties eroded after the attacks, and she advocated for activism.
"For far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen and, frankly, I'm tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it," she said in the March 23 speech, according to video posted online. "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."
CAIR was founded in 1994, according to its website, but its membership increased dramatically following the attacks.
Her comments prompted responses from Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, who called her remarks "unbelievable." Thursday’s cover of the New York Post addressed her remarks with a front page that featured an infamous photo of New York City’s Twin Towers on fire on the day of the attacks.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.