Top Dem Lujan: Omar’s 9/11 Comment Was ‘Extremely Hurtful’

Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D., N.M.) on Thursday said freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D., Minn.) comments about the September 11th attacks were "not only hurtful to me, but extremely hurtful to everyone who was personally impacted  by those terrorist attacks."

Lujan, the assistant speaker of the House, appeared on MSNBC to discuss the "successes of House Democrats’ first 100 Days," but Kasie Hunt started off the interview by asking him about Omar's controversial September 11th comments.

Omar said the Council of American-Islamic Relations was founded after the terrorist attacks because "some people did something, and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties." The "some people did something" line sparked outrage, prompting the New York Post to publish a cover showing showing the World Trade Center towers being attacked and saying "Here's your something."

"Several of her colleagues have jumped to her defense. Do you think that she was inappropriately dismissive of what happened on September 11, 2001?" Hunt asked.

"Well, those statements were not only hurtful to me, but extremely hurtful to everyone that was personally impacted by those terrorist attacks," Lujan said. "No one should refer to what happened on 9/11, with terrorist attacks that killed thousands of Americans, as ‘something by some people.' And that's what was wrong with those statements."

Lujan briefly shifted the conversation to the death threats that Omar has received, condemning them as "wrong." He then repeated his criticism of  Omar's comments, saying they were "clearly very hurtful to me."

Later in the interview, Hunt brought up Omar's attack on Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R., Texas), who criticized her, and she asked Lujan whether he believes Omar should apologize or whether she was right to call on political leaders to condemn Crenshaw for "dangerous incitement.

"Well, again I think that anytime that there is a call or something that was said pointing to a terrorist attack that killed thousands of people across the country, that's wrong," Lujan said. "I think that it is important to recognize that and apologize, but again I also agree with with Ilhan stated, which I said earlier, which is condemning the notion of death threats. No one should be extending death threats to no one."

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