MSNBC host Joy Reid took aim at Republicans, including President Trump, on Saturday over their criticism of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) for remarks she made about the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Playing an extended clip of Omar’s comments from last month, Reid accused the GOP of trying to paint the progressive lawmaker as dismissive of the 9/11 attacks, when her remarks were referring to efforts by some conservatives to strip Muslim Americans of civil liberties after Sept. 11, 2001.
{mosads}“Many on the right cut, not only the little phrase, that snippet, ‘some people did something’, and used that out of context snippet to assail the congresswoman, with some Fox News personalities even questioning her loyalty to the United States,” Reid said, referring to remarks made by Fox host Brian Kilmeade, who later clarified that he was not questioning Omar’s loyalty.
“Last night Fox News superfan Donald Trump took things to a shocking new low,” Reid continued, “tweeting out a graphic video of the Twin Towers burning, interspersed with that single snippet of the congresswoman’s speech.”
“We’re not going to show you that video because it is so inflammatory it falls into a category where most news organizations wouldn’t even play it on TV. And yet it was released through the preferred public information tool of the President of the United States. Making it akin to an official public statement,” she added.
“Many are calling Trump’s tweet and that video an incitement to violence against the congresswoman, particularly since it comes just one week after a self-declared Trump supporter was charged with threatening to kill Rep. Omar,” Reid concluded.
The MSNBC host weighed in hours after the president tweeted an edited video that showed a clip of Omar’s remarks interspersed with footage of the Sept. 11 attacks, with Trump tweeting the caption, “WE WILL NEVER FORGET!”
A number of Democrats, including presidential hopefuls Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), defended Omar following Trump’s tweet. Sanders said in a tweet that “disgusting and dangerous attacks against her must end.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also fired back on Saturday, slamming Trump’s decision to use the 9/11 terrorist attacks in a “political attack.”
“The memory of 9/11 is sacred ground, and any discussion of it must be done with reverence. The President shouldn’t use the painful images of 9/11 for a political attack,” Pelosi said in a statement.
“It is wrong for the President, as Commander-in-Chief, to fan the flames to make anyone less safe,” she added.