AOC, Squad Democrats cry 'blatant Islamophobia' after commentator shreds Ilhan Omar as Hamas 'agent'
Progressive members of the "Squad" lashed out at CNN and demanded an apology after a conservative commentator accused Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., of effectively serving as a mouthpiece for Hamas, minutes after she appeared on the network.
During the interview, Omar said she would support President Biden in the upcoming election after being highly critical of his policies on Israel in its war against Hamas. She also suggested that White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan was not being honest about Gaza cease-fire talks.
Conservative commentator Scott Jennings reacted to the interview immediately afterward by saying he wasn't surprised Omar was voting for the presumed Democratic nominee.
He added that he "was surprised" that "there is a public relations agent for Hamas sitting in the United States Congress."
REP. ILHAN OMAR PRESSED ON OLD COMMENTS: ‘WASN’T AWARE' THERE WERE ‘TROPES ABOUT JEWS AND MONEY’
Some fellow members of the "Squad" were outraged by this comment and took to X to blast CNN as endorsing anti-Muslim bigotry.
"How on earth is this kind of blatant Islamophobia so casually accepted without pushback? This is shocking," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., posted late Wednesday.
She linked to a clip of the remark by Jennings posted by Jeremy Slevin, who used to work in Omar's office and now serves as a senior adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., also accused Jennings of "anti-Muslim bigotry" and called on CNN to denounce his comments.
"Scott Jennings’ comments are reminiscent of the anti-Muslim bigotry we saw in the George Bush post-9/11 era. It is disgusting and must not be normalized. CNN should denounce this hateful, dangerous and blatant Islamophobia immediately," she posted to X.
"Scott Jennings is reverting to one of the oldest Islamophobic tropes in the book, which is to allege that Muslim Americans are secretly terrorist sympathizers. People have been fired from CNN for much less," Democratic strategist Waleed Shahid posted.
DON LEMON SAYS FREE SPEECH ‘DOESN’T MATTER' TO ELON MUSK AFTER X PARTNERSHIP IS CANCELLED
In October, Omar was one of ten Democrats to vote against a resolution condemning Hamas for the Oct. 7 terror attack. Omar did condemn Hamas in an X post in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attack.
Some far-left media hosts were also outraged at CNN for not pushing back on Jennings' remarks about the congresswoman.
"GOP's Scott Jennings peddles open anti-Muslim hate on CNN. This bigot is a CNN paid analyst. This is what happens because CNN has NO on-air Muslim American contributors to push back. There's NO place for this hate on CNN!" progressive radio host and MSNBC columnist Dean Obeidallah reacted.
"Disgusting racism and Islamophobia from Scott Jennings on CNN," former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan also criticized.
An account called "Dear White staffers" which describes itself as "Congressional BIPOC s---poster(s) on Capitol Hill," also attacked CNN.
"CNN has allowed hateful and Islamophobic remarks to go unpunished from their commentator Scott Jennings. The rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes is normalized by these disgusting words," the account posted.
Some conservatives online pushed back on the progressive anger, calling it misplaced and hollow.
"The far-left is attempting to make this a thing," one right-leaning account posted. "Except it only makes sense to suggest this claim is Islamophobia if you pretend Omar’s anti-Semitism and pro-terrorist propaganda efforts are representative of Muslims. This isn’t Islamophobia, it’s an accurate description."
"AOC is outraged a CNN pundit called Ilhan Omar a "public relations agent of Hamas." She didn’t say a peep in all the years CNN spent saying the same thing about Republicans and Putin," the Washington Free Beacon's Chuck Ross wrote on X.
Fox News Digital reached out to CNN and Jennings for comment.