In a House hearing on Venezuela today, anti-Semite Ilhan Omar despicably attacked Trump’s new special envoy to Venezuela, Elliot Abrams, by suggesting over and over that he would look the other way at the US committing war crimes and genocide as he implements US policy there.
Watch:
Here’s more from Fox News:
The Trump administration’s new special envoy for Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, clashed Wednesday with freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., during a House hearing on the Caracas crisis after the congresswoman tried to turn focus to Abrams’ history in Latin America while asking him point-blank whether he’d support “genocide” if it served American interests.
Abrams fired back, calling the line of questioning “ridiculous” and refusing to respond to the personal “attack.”
On Wednesday, Omar began her questioning of Abrams with his connection to the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan administration, U.S. support of the right-wing government of José Napoleón Duarte during the Salvadoran Civil War and Washington’s broader involvement in Latin America’s civil conflicts during the 1970s and 1980s.
“In 1991, you pleaded guilty to two counts of withholding information to Congress regarding your involvement [in] the Iran-Contra affair for which you were later pardoned by George H.W. Bush,” Omar said. “I fail to understand why members of this committee or the American people should find any testimony that you give today to be truthful.”
The Iran-Contra affair involved senior Reagan administration officials secretly facilitating the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo, in the hopes of using those funds to support right-wing paramilitaries attempting to overthrow Nicaragua’s Sandinista government.
Abrams attempted to respond, but Omar said she was not asking a question and went on to criticize him for his 1982 testimony before the Senate in which he dismissed as “communist propaganda” reports about the El Mozote Massacre, where the Salvadoran army killed more than 800 civilians in 1981. The soldiers responsible for the massacre, the Atlacatl Battalion, had recently been trained by U.S. forces.
“That is a ridiculous question,” Abrams responded when Omar asked him if he thought the massacre was a “fabulous achievement.” “I am sorry, but I am not going to respond to that kind of an attack.”
Omar then asked if he would “support crimes against humanity or genocide if you believe they were serving U.S. interests as you did in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.” Abrams in the past had defended Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt, who oversaw a campaign in which thousands of Guatemalans were either massacred or disappeared and who was later convicted of genocide. Omar, though, has also faced criticism for challenging the U.S. policy in Venezuela, and her questions appeared to suggest active U.S. opposition to Maduro, who has overseen a complete economic collapse in Venezuela, could spiral into “genocide.”
Abrams responded: “I don’t believe this line of questioning is meant to be real questions and so I will not reply.”
Omar then said she wanted to know whether “a genocide will take place and you will look the other way because American interests were being upheld.” Abrams said the American policy in Venezuela is to support the Venezuelan people’s effort to restore democracy.
It doesn’t get more despicable and vile than this. She first attacks his credibility and then refuses to let him respond to that. Then she accuses him of supporting genocide as long as US interests are achieved. How ridiculous!
Honestly, I wouldn’t have blamed Abrams if he got up and walked out of the committee right then and there.
And I’m just going to point out, in case his name that she mispronounced doesn’t give it away for ya, that Abrams is Jewish man. Coincidence?
I doubt it.
UPDATE:
In case that video gets removed or disappears, here’s another video of the exchange from CSPAN:
Exchange between Rep. @IlhanMN and Elliott Abrams: "I fail to understand why members of this committee of the American people should find any testimony that you give today to be truthful." pic.twitter.com/n8aMbH1g3G
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 13, 2019