Washington Post - Omar has a history of making controversial comments about Israel, including admitting that she promoted anti-Semitic tropes that included suggesting U.S. politicians were “all about the Benjamins baby” when it came to supporting Israel. She apologized in two instances; in a third, progressives came to her defense and overcame even Democratic Party leaders who tried to get Omar to back down. Omar also has other issues, including potentially violating the law by filing joint tax returns with a man to whom she was not legally married.
But Trump, as he is wont to do, has stretched her liabilities beyond any real evidence. In recent days, he has accused her of supporting Qaeda, a claim for which The Washington Post’s Fact Checker gave him four Pinocchios. Then, shortly before his speech Wednesday night, he cited long-standing, unsubstantiated Internet rumors that Omar had married her brother. These rumors popped up in her 2018 campaign, during which she called them “disgusting lies.”
The fact that these allegations have entered into any national news stories whatsoever is a testament to a president who is willing to traffic in innuendo and unfounded conspiracy theories. And they hark back to Trump’s regular questioning of whether President Barack Obama had lied about his birthplace, a baseless theory that led to many Republicans believing Obama was not just ineligible to be president, but was also a secret Muslim. A poll just this week showed one-third of Americans continue to believe Obama was “probably” born in Kenya.
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