Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert and Minnesota Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar had a contentious phone chat concerning Boebert's recent incendiary remarks about Omar.
According to Boebert, who discussed the phone call in an Instagram video, the phone call ended with Omar hanging up after both congresswomen requested that the other give public apologies for previous remarks.
The GOP representative claimed she initiated the call with Omar because she "wanted to let her know directly that I had reflected on my previous remarks."
"Now as a strong, Christian woman who values faith deeply, I never want anything I say to offend someone's religion. So I told her that. Even after I put out a public statement to that effect, she said that she still wanted a public apology because what I had done wasn't good enough. So I reiterated to her what I had just said," Boebert stated.
According to the congresswoman, "The Squad" member Omar "kept asking for a public apology," and Boebert instead asked the Democratic lawmaker to "make a public apology to the American people for her anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-police rhetoric."
"She continued to press and I continued to press back. And then, Representative Omar hung up on me," she added.
In the meantime, Omar released a statement blaming Boebert for the call's outcome and revealing that she indeed ended it, citing the "outright bigotry and hate" of Boebert as the reason for hanging up.
"Today I graciously accepted a call from Rep. Lauren Boebert in the hope of receiving a direct apology for falsely claiming she met me in an elevator, suggesting I was a terrorist, and for a history of anti-Muslim hate," Omar said in a statement posted on Twitter.
Omar pointed out that "Instead of apologizing for her Islamophobic comments and fabricated lies," Boebert supposedly "refused to publicly acknowledge her hurtful and dangerous comments."
"She instead doubled down on her rhetoric and I decided to end the unproductive call," she noted.
Earlier, Omar accused the Republican of fabricating an "anti-Muslim" story about her while speaking to supporters.
In the original video from the event, Boebert claimed that when she noticed a police officer "with fret all over his face" running towards the elevator, she spotted Omar to her left and said: "Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine." Boebert also said that "the jihad squad decided to show up for work today."
More to that, she assured those in the room that Omar was "not tough in person," in an apparent hint that Omar would not react harshly to her remarks.
Boebert vs. 'Jihad Squad': GOP Rep. Buries the Hatchet With Squad's Omar Over Feud Caused by Remarks
27 November 2021, 02:30 GMT
However, following the video going viral and the public outrage toward Boebert, the congresswoman later apologized to the Muslim community for her remarks, adding that she had already "reached out to her office to speak with her directly," and that there are "plenty of policy differences to focus on without this unnecessary distraction."
Boebert, who became a representative in January this year, often makes headlines with controversial statements or public actions, some of which have been aimed at ridiculing Omar's fellow progressive "Squad" members.
Shortly after being elected to the House, the freshman congresswoman and staunch gun rights activist announced her wish to carry a handgun on Capitol Hill in accordance with the rights provided by the Second Amendment.