Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said the Gaza cease-fire encampments at Columbia University are being “co-opted and made to look bad” – but would not answer questions on whether she would say the same about the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
“Throughout history, protests were co-opted and made to look bad so police and public leaders would shut them down. That’s what we are seeing now at Columbia University,” Omar wrote on X earlier this week.
“The Columbia protesters have made clear their demands and want their school not to be complacent in the ongoing Genocide in Gaza. Public officials and media making this about anything else are inflaming the situation and need to bring calmness and sanity back.”
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Rep. Ilhan Omar claimed the Columbia University protests had been “co-opted.” (Getty Images)
Social media videos from the anti-Israel tent encampment that’s been staged for days on Columbia’s campus show activists cheering on the deaths of Israeli soldiers and showing support for Hamas. Jewish students have reported feeling unsafe on campus and shared stories of being verbally and physically assaulted.
“They were pushing and shoving me… They threw rocks at my face. At that moment, my life was totally threatened. And there was no safety authority on campus,” one student told NY1 over the weekend.
Fox News Digital made multiple attempts to reach Omar’s office to ask whether she would say the events of Jan. 6, 2021, during which she has previously said she feared for her life from the “violent mob,” could have similarly been co-opted by bad actors. Fox News Digital also asked Omar to explain if she felt differently.
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Anti-Israel agitators rally outside Columbia University on April 23, 2024, in New York City. (Jeenah Moon/Getty Images)
None of the messages sent to Omar’s office about the matter were returned.
In an interview with The Guardian in late January 2021, Omar said she “didn’t know if [she] would make it out that day” and that she phoned her ex-husband when the Jan. 6 attack began with “a request to him to make sure he would continue to tell my children that I loved them if I didn’t make it out.”
The Minnesota progressive’s daughter, who attends Columbia’s sister school Barnard College, was one of dozens of protesters arrested earlier this week for refusing to leave the unauthorized encampment, though she is not accused of involvement in any violent clashes.
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Rioters loyal to President Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
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Omar’s fellow members of the House’s left-wing “Squad” also leaped to the students’ defense early this week.
“I condemn any potential police action on Columbia University’s campus. As an educator who personally experienced the over policing of our schools, this is personal to me,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., wrote on X late Tuesday. “We must resist right-wing demagoguery and stop suppressing peaceful protest if we are to keep students safe.”