Rep. Dan Crenshaw Monday doubled down on comments he made criticizing fellow freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar's discussion of the 9/11 terrorist attacks during a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) banquet, saying that she was "dismissive" in her words, tone, and gesture and had brought controversy on herself.
"The broader point she was making is perfectly fine," the Texas Republican told CBSN. "The broader point that she was making is that the organization CAIR defends civil liberties and that there was concern about civil liberties post-9/11." CAIR's website states it was founded in 1994.
However, that didn't change the fact that she referred to the attacks in a "dismissive way," said Crenshaw."
During her speech, Omar, one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, said CAIR was formed to protect the civil rights of Muslim Americans after the attacks, because "they recognized that some people did something."
Crenshaw, who tweeted a 19-second clip of the comments, told CBSN that he found it "unbelievable that someone would refer to it that way" and he will "stand by that wholeheartedly."
Omar's office said she'd gotten death threats over the controversy, and Crenshaw said members of Congress, including himself, face threats. However, he also said Omar caused the controversy with her own words, and she can't lay the blame anywhere else, including on him for tweeting the clip or on President Donald Trump, who had shared a video of her remarks along with images of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon burning after they were hit with hijacked airliners.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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