President Trump accuses Rep. Omar of supporting al-Qaeda

Trump’s accusation, … is that Omar sympathizes with al-Qaeda terrorists. It’s one thing to criticize U.S. policies and institutions, as Omar does. It’s entirely another thing to voice support for al-Qaeda. We found no evidence for that claim.

At one point, Trump quoted Omar as saying: “When I think of al-Qaeda, I can hold my chest out.”

As CNN noted, Trump appeared to be referring to “an Omar comment that has circulated this year in conservative media, including Fox News.” It comes from a 2013 interview. Omar was a guest on “BelAhdan,” a Twin Cities PBS show about Middle East issues. She did not voice approval for al-Qaeda and in fact condemned terrorist acts as “evil” and “heinous.”

Omar and the host, Ahmed Tharwat, suggested that radicalization and terrorist strikes are partly a reaction to the United States’ and other world powers’ “involvement in other countries’ affairs.”

After that, the discussion turned to the way some English speakers use or accentuate certain Arabic words for effect, whereas no one accentuates “America” or “England” or “the Army.”

Here’s what Omar said about that:

“I remember when I was in college I took a terrorism class. … We learned the ideology. The thing that was interesting in the class was every time the professor said ‘al-Qaeda,’ he sort of like, his shoulders went up, and you know — ‘al-Qaeda,’ ‘Hezbollah.’ …

“You don’t say ‘America’ with an intensity. You don’t say ‘England’ with an intensity. You don’t say ‘the Army’ with an intensity. But you say these names because you want that word to carry weight. You want it to leave something with the person that’s hearing. It’s said with a deeper voice.”

Trump twisted these words beyond recognition to make an incendiary claim that Omar supports terrorists.

Trump also pointed to Omar’s remarks at a March event hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Omar arguably minimized the 9/11 terrorist attacks with the phrase “some people did something.”

She said, “CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.” (CAIR was founded in 1994, not in response to 9/11, as Omar claimed.)

As we found in this fact check, a full look at her 20-minute speech adds necessary context.

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