Rep. Ilhan Omar issues ‘clarification’ after equating US, Israel to Taliban, Hamas

Rep. Ilhan Omar issued a mea culpa Thursday afternoon to “clarify” remarks comparing the US and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban, following a firestorm of bipartisan criticism.

“On Monday, I asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken about an ongoing International Criminal Court investigations. To be clear: the conversation was about accountability for specific incidents regarding those ICC cases, not a moral comparison between Hamas and the Taliban and the U.S. and Israel,” Omar (D-Minn.) said in a statement.  “I was in no way equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries with well-established judicial systems.” The about-face came in the wake of a group of Jewish Democratic lawmakers releasing a statement calling for clarification, after Omar tweeted a video of her line of questioning during a hearing with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.