Rep. Liz Cheney (R., Wyo.) excoriated House Democrats for failing to put forward a resolution focused solely on condemning anti-Semitism in the wake of Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D., Minn.) remarks accusing Israel's supporters of having dual allegiance.
Cheney opposed a resolution passed in the House on Thursday that condemned various forms of hate.
"You know, we have seen now the Democrats struggle to simply put on the floor a resolution that condemns Representative Omar by name, that strips her from her membership on the House Foreign Affairs Committee," Cheney said during an interview on Fox News's America's Newsroom on Friday. "And so this resolution ended up really being an effort to protect her."
Host Sandra Smith played a clip of President Donald Trump's labeling the Democrats an anti-Israel and anti-Jewish party.
"The lesson that history teaches is that we have an obligation to stand up to anti-Semitic hate. Those of us who are elected officials have an obligation to stand up to call evil by its name, and that's frankly what the Republicans have been doing all along here. And I think that the fact that the House Democrats are not able even to just put a simple resolution on the floor condemning anti-Semitism, condemning Representative Omar's remarks, stripping her from her membership on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, tells you where that party is today," Cheney said.
"The president is exactly right," Cheney continued. "The whole episode from the perspective of the Democrats was an absolute disgrace, and they have become a party that is now enabling and abiding by anti-Semitism, and that is extremely dangerous."
Some Democratic members of Congress similarly criticized their party's response to Omar's anti-Semitic comment made last week. "I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country," Omar said during an event in Washington, D.C. She proceeded to defend the comment on Twitter.
House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Eliot Engel (D., N.Y.), who slammed Omar for "invoking a vile anti-Semitic slur," expressed his disappointment that the party did not put forth a standalone resolution condemning the freshman Democrat's remarks.
"This resolution is a fine resolution and I will support it, but I am very disappointed that we weren't able to have a separate resolution to specifically condemn anti-Semitism and what our colleague said that really was a very hateful term," Engel said.
Rep. Ted Deutch (D., Fla.) questioned why House Democrats were "unable to singularly condemn anti-Semitism."
Last month, Omar apologized for anti-Semitic tweets, which were later quietly deleted, and she also walked back a tweet accusing Israel of hypnotizing the world and performing evil acts.