Freshman Rep. Omar Ilhan (D-MN) avoided answering a reporter when asked if she owed the Covington Catholic High School boys an apology after lying about them and implying they were racist in a now-deleted tweet.
“You did accuse them of racism. Do you owe them an apology for that? Were they racist?,” asked reporter, Jason Calvi.
Omar did not acknowledge the questions and instead walked away.
Prior to those questions, Omar did convey a message she had for the Covington boys.
“The message I have for them is that in life there are often consequences on the way that you behave,” Omar said.
“Um, I, I feel sorry the way that some of them have gotten blame and hurt, um, but I also recognize that, uh, in, in the way that the video appeared that there was a native elder who was, um, intervening and, uh, and really showing care for what it looked like to mediate a difficult situation and I wanted to hold him, um, in, in space in my heart, and, and to have a conversation about what hate, division in this country looks like that is often perpetuated by uh, the, uh, inhabitor of the White House,” she continued.
WATCH: Rep. Omar refused to apologize to #CovingtonCatholic boys, and told me "in life there are consequences," when I asked her about her deleted tweet falsely accusing them of leading "racist chants."
Raw @EWTNNewsNightly video:pic.twitter.com/0tYsl72EnD— Jason Calvi (@JasonCalvi) February 6, 2019
Omar originally tweeted about the students, “The boys were protesting a woman’s right to choose & yelled ‘it’s not rape if you enjoy it. They were taunting 5 Black men before they surrounded Phillips and led racist chants. Sandmann’s family hired a right wing PR firm to write his non-apology.”
She has since deleted her tweet, but offered no explanation or apology for misrepresenting the students.
In a possible first step towards a libel lawsuit, Omar–along with dozens of other celebrities and media companies–was sent a letter by lawyers representing Covington student Nick Sandmann.
The mainstream media’s original narrative about the Covington kids was that the students–who were in Washington D.C. last month for the March for Life–were disrespectful to Native American protester, Nathan Phillips. However, it turns out that a longer version of the video proves that the students were taunted by protesters–most likely–for wearing pro-Trump MAGA hats. The extended version of the video also shows Phillips approaching the students.
Video also shows the students were harassed by a group of “Black Hebrew Israelites” who called the children products of incest, “peckerwoods” and “dusty ass crackers,” among other names.
Many students have reported receiving death threats after the incident and Covington Catholic school authorities were forced to cancel classes due to safety concerns.
