Vice President Mike Pence said anti-Semitism "has no place" Congress during a speech before the nonprofit Christians United for Israel on Monday.
"Let me say this from the heart. Anti-Semitism has no place in the Congress of the United States of America or anywhere in this nation. And anyone who slanders the historic alliance between the United States and Israel should not be sitting on the Foreign Affairs committee in the House of Representatives," Pence said.
The vice president had been alluding to comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.).
"It's astonishing to think that the party of Harry Truman, which did so much to help create the state of Israel, has been co-opted by people who promote rank anti-Semitic rhetoric and work to undermine the broad american consensus of support for Israel," Pence said. "Recently, a freshman Democrat in Congress trafficked in repeated anti-Semitic tropes. We all remember them. She alleged that congressional support for Israel reflected an allegiance to a foreign country. She said that Israel had, and I quote, hypnotized the world."
Pence hammered Democrats for failing to unequivocally condemn anti-Semitism in the wake of Omar's remarks.
"Maybe most astonishing of all as we talk about how times have changed, the party that has been home to so many American Jews for so long, recently couldn't even muster the votes to unequivocally condemn anti-Semitism in a resolution," he continued.
Pence lamented the rise of anti-Semitism across the world.
"All over the world anti-Semitism is on the rise. We see it on college campuses, in the marketplace and sadly even in the halls of Congress. You know, there was a time that support for Israel was not a partisan issue here in Washington," Pence said.
In February, Omar said she wanted "to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is okay for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country." She did not apologize for her comments, instead doubling down in tweets directed at fellow Democratic congresswoman Nita Lowey (D., N.Y.), in which she repeated the anti-Semitic dual-loyalty canard.
Earlier in the month, she apologized last month for anti-Semitic tweets which accused AIPAC of paying politicians to be pro-Israel. She also had to backtrack from another tweet accusing Israel of hypnotizing the world and performing evil acts.
Democrats hurried to cobble together a resolution condemning various forms of hatred which, despite passing, received bipartisan criticism.