Omar says Israel policy divisions won’t stop her from supporting Biden in November

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said policy differences toward Israel between her and President Biden won’t stop her from supporting him in the November general election.

“Of course,” Omar said Tuesday, when asked by CNN’s Abby Phillip on “NewsNight” whether she would vote for Biden if the election were held that day, in a clip highlighted by Mediaite. “Democracy is on the line, we are facing down fascism.”

“And I personally know what my life felt like having Trump as the president of this country, and I know what it felt like for my constituents, and for people around this country and around the world,” Omar continued. “We have to do everything that we can to make sure that does not happen to our country again.”

Last month at a press conference, Omar, a strong supporter of a cease-fire in Gaza, accused the Biden administration “of greenlighting the massacre of Palestinians.” She went after the Biden administration for the approval of extra aid to Israel without congressional approval. 

“This administration cannot claim to be an honest broker of peace while greenlighting the massacre of Palestinians. The restocking of Israel’s arsenal is not foreign policy. It is state-sponsored violence waged against defenseless families who want to only live in peace,” Omar said.

Omar, in the same Tuesday interview, also accused White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan of not sharing the “full picture” when it comes to Gaza cease-fire talks.

“I’m saying he’s not sharing the full picture,” Omar said. “I don’t know if he’s being honest or not, but it certainly does not go along with the current reporting that has come out of those negotiation efforts.”

Earlier in the interview, a clip of Sullivan was played in which he said those “who would like to see a cease-fire in Gaza, a cease-fire is on the table today, for six weeks, to be built on into something more enduring, if Hamas would simply release women, wounded and elderly.”

“And the fact that they will not do so says a lot to me, about Hamas’s regard for innocent Palestinian civilians,” Sullivan continued.