Monday, 25 Nov 2024

Democrats Put Off Anti-Semitism Resolution After Fierce Backlash

WASHINGTON — House Democratic leaders have put off a vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and bigotry after a backlash from rank-and-file lawmakers who said Representative Ilhan Omar, whose comments gave rise to the measure, was being unfairly singled out.

Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat, told reporters on Wednesday morning that the language of the resolution was still being drafted and no date for a vote had been set. But by Wednesday afternoon, the uproar over Ms. Omar had spread beyond the House, to the White House and the Senate.

As House Democrats questioned why their leaders had not moved earlier to condemn President Trump for his own racially charged comments, Mr. Trump weighed in on Twitter. Seeking to exploit divisions among Democrats, he chastised them for not taking an immediate and strong stand on anti-Semitism.

“It is shameful that House Democrats won’t take a stronger stand against Anti-Semitism in their conference,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Anti-Semitism has fueled atrocities throughout history and it’s inconceivable they will not act to condemn it!”

But Mr. Trump has been accused repeatedly of trafficking in anti-Semitic tropes. His 2016 campaign tweeted out an image of Hillary Clinton in front of a Jewish star, over a pile of money. His final campaign ad railed against “global special interests” as the faces of George Soros, Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs and the Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen — all Jewish — crossed the screen. In 2015, Mr. Trump told members of the Republican Jewish Coalition: “You’re not going to support me because I don’t want your money. You want to control your politicians, that’s fine.”

Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who is again running for the Democratic presidential nomination, took the opposite tack and suggested House Democratic leaders were trying to tamp down legitimate discussion of the conduct of the Israeli government.

“What I fear is going on in the House now is an effort to target Congresswoman Omar as a way of stifling that debate,” Mr. Sanders said in a statement. “That’s wrong.”

Earlier in the day, Democrats, including some prominent African-Americans, confronted Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a testy closed-door meeting, demanding to know why they were being pushed to pass the resolution when bigoted comments by Republicans have gone unchallenged.

Representative Ayanna Pressley, Democrat of Massachusetts, said she told leadership that there must be “equity in our outrage,” noting that Ms. Omar, a Minnesotan and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, was being attacked for her faith.

“Islamophobia needs to be included” in the anti-Semitism resolution, she told reporters on Wednesday. “We need to denounce all forms of hate. There is no hierarchy of hurt.”

The closed-door meeting, the weekly gathering of House Democrats at the Capitol, generally involves discussion of the legislative agenda and political strategy. Instead, according to multiple people present, it turned into a gripe session over the treatment of Ms. Omar by her own party.

“What would be the appropriate level of punishment — a public flogging?” Representative Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, asked in an interview after the meeting.

“We are all responsible for what we say, and there are consequences, whether it is this resolution or something else,” Mr. Grijalva said. “But there is a double standard we have to be aware of. The level of condemnation on Ms. Omar has been really intense.”

The resolution began as a response to Ms. Omar’s suggestion last week that pro-Israel activists were pushing “for allegiance to a foreign country,” a remark that her critics say played into the anti-Semitic trope of “dual loyalty.”

Representatives Eliot L. Engel and Nita M. Lowey — both New Yorkers who lead powerful committees — and other Jewish lawmakers discussed the comment over the weekend, bringing in Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Hoyer; by Tuesday, a resolution condemning anti-Semitism was circulating on Capitol Hill, surprising lawmakers who had not heard about it.

By Tuesday night, with members of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus pushing back, it became clear to Ms. Pelosi that the measure would have to be rewritten to include a condemnation of anti-Muslim bias. (Ms. Omar, who has been facing accusations of anti-Semitic bias for weeks, has herself been the target of Islamophobic attacks, including a death threat in Minnesota.)

But that was not enough for many lawmakers, especially African-Americans who see Ms. Omar getting singled out as a woman of color, while Democratic leaders have let slide other racist and bigoted remarks — including those of President Trump. According to several people in the room, a number of African-American representatives stood up to challenge Ms. Pelosi.

Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman, Democrat of New Jersey, defended Ms. Omar and said about the resolution, “I don’t think this is a good strategy,” according to one person in the room who took notes.

Ms. Pelosi said that the “picture painted of Ms. Omar is wrong,” but that the House needed to address the issue — and that the caucus was “a family” that needed to unite around its legislative agenda, this person said.

Ms. Pelosi also told the lawmakers that the language of the resolution was still under discussion, and that no date had been set for a vote.

Echoing the speaker, Mr. Hoyer also defended Ms. Omar, saying, “I don’t think she’s anti-Semitic.”

But he said that the House needed to address the comments, adding that there is a “particular danger to this kind of rhetoric, whoever said it.”

Representative Jahana Hayes, a Connecticut Democrat who is black, told Ms. Pelosi that she had “put us in a bad position,” and complained that she had learned of the resolution by watching television. As Ms. Pelosi was responding, Ms. Hayes began digging around in her purse; Ms. Pelosi, thinking Ms. Hayes was talking to another lawmaker in the room, grew visibly irritated, according to a second person present.

Toward the end of the meeting, the first person said, Representative Cedric L. Richmond, Democrat of Louisiana and another African-American, asked why leaders were pushing for a resolution condemning bigotry while ignoring other pressing matters, like the treatment of young black men by the police.

And Representative Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois, who is white, made a plea for members to think twice before taking to social media to express controversial opinions, or risk dividing Democrats in a way that enables Republicans to exploit those divisions. “Can we not do this on Twitter?” she asked to laughter.

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