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President Trump’s administration is proposing a sharp cut in diplomatic funding for the third year in a row, even though Congress repudiated his last two State Department budgets and gave the branch billions more than he requested. “This is a back and forth with Congress,” Doug Pitkin, director of State's bureau of budget and planning, told reporters Monday. “Just because Congress has not taken up some of the reductions that were proposed over the last three years does not change the administration's position.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo touted the $40 billion request for fiscal 2020, a steep decline from...

Linda Sarsour, co-leader of the embattled Women’s March, attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as House Democrats draft a resolution condemning antisemitism following blowback from Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) latest anti-semitic remarks. Omar became the center of controversy after suggesting last week that lawmakers are pressured by pro-Israel groups to take a pledge of “allegiance to a foreign country.” “I want to ask, ‘Why is it OK for me to talk about the influence of the [National Rifle Association], or fossil fuel industries or Big Pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobbying group that is influencing policy?’” the Minnesota...

Women's March leader Linda Sarsour ripped into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after House Democrats drafted a resolution condemning anti-Semitism in response to Rep. Ilhan Omar accusing pro-Israel lawmakers of pushing for "allegiance to a foreign country."

Women’s March co-chair Linda Sarsour went on a rant against Rep. Nancy Pelosi Monday night, saying she is unqualified to be a feminist or Speaker of the House. Sarsour was reacting to a planned House resolution condemning anti-Semitism, an offense that both she and her movement have been accused of. She said “this is why” she wanted Rep. Barbara Lee, another California Democrat, to be Speaker of the House. The prominent Muslim feminist went on to criticize Pelosi for being white and “doing the dirty work of powerful white men” – suggesting this disqualified her as a women’s right advocate....

Just hours after apologizing for making comments deemed anti-Semitic, Rep. Ilhan Omar retweeted a thread defending her claim that campaign contributions from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee buy support for the group’s positions. Ms. Omar praised the writer, Ady Barkan, who told of being a staffer on a long-shot congressional campaign in 2006 when the candidate agreed to take stances on two issues in exchange for a maximum contribution from AIPAC. “Your courage can’t be matched. I am often in tears thinking about how you won’t be with us in this fight and how I am going to miss...

In an unprecedented rebuke under the new Congress, House Democratic leaders on Monday roundly condemned Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., for statements about supporters of Israel that were widely viewed as anti-Semitic and called on her to apologize. The statement issued by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic leadership team followed the latest in a string of controversial comments from the freshman lawmaker -- as well as pressure from Republican leaders to speak out. “Anti-Semitism must be called out, confronted and condemned whenever it is encountered, without exception," the statement said. "We are and will always be...

Full title: Ilhan Omar should be removed from Foreign Affairs Committee: American Islamic Forum for Democracy presidentThe president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy admonished freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar Wednesday morning and blasted Democrats for not doing enough to combat anti-Semitism. “I’m frankly, as an American and as a Muslim, insulted at their resolution because it doesn’t name Ilhan Omar,” Dr. Zuhdi Jasser told Fox News' “America’s Newsroom.” “You listen to [Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y.] and he says ‘oh, we’re going to work with her,’ I mean it’s patronizing, they’re infantilizing her.” A House vote on a resolution condemning...

House Democrats plan vote in response to anti-Israel comments made by Rep. Ilhan Omar House Democratic leaders on Wednesday will call up a vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism — a move meant to respond to anti-Israel comments made by Minnesota Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar. Staff from the offices of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler and Ethics Chairman Ted Deutch worked on the resolution over the weekend but the text has yet to be finalized, according to a senior Democratic aide. Omar is under fire for at least...

Making herself Louis Farrakhan's "sweetheart" as he put it, Rep. Ilhan Omar isn't going anywhere with the apologies on her third incident of anti-semitism. Farrakhan, you recall, didn't want Omar, whom he called "sweetheart" to apologize for those, and sure enough, she's not apologizing. What I see instead in the miasma of tweets on Twitter, is a bid to deflect attention, with she and her supporters attempting to present the "narrative" of Omar as the "real victim," calling attention to a few bad actors, some anonymous, who've made threats against her and drawn a negative reaction and lawmen looking for...

Posted on March 3, 2019 by John Hinderaker in Ilhan Omar Ilhan Unbound Eliot Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, slammed Ilhan Omar for anti-Semitism on Friday. He didn’t mince words: House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Eliot Engel (D-NY) blasted Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) on Friday for suggesting that pro-Israel politicians hold “allegiance to a foreign country” and demanded the freshman congresswoman apologize for her “vile anti-Semitic slur.” “I welcome debate in Congress based on the merits of policy, but it’s unacceptable and deeply offensive to call into question the loyalty of fellow American citizens because of their...

House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Eliot Engel (D-NY) blasted Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) on Friday for suggesting that pro-Israel politicians hold “allegiance to a foreign country” and demanded the freshman congresswoman apologize for her “vile anti-Semitic slur.” “I welcome debate in Congress based on the merits of policy, but it’s unacceptable and deeply offensive to call into question the loyalty of fellow American citizens because of their political views, including support for the U.S.-Israel relationship,” Engel said in a statement released Friday evening. “Her comments were outrageous and deeply hurtful, and I ask that she retract them, apologize, and commit...

Freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) apologized on Monday for tweets suggesting that American lawmakers were motivated by money to defend Israel. Omar's apology came after she spoke with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who along with other House Democratic leaders called on her to apologize for the "use of anti-Semitic tropes" about Jewish people and money. "Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes. My intention is never to offend my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole. We have to always be willing to step...

Representatives Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota were hailed as symbols of diversity when they were sworn in last month as the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress, Ms. Tlaib in her mother’s hand-embroidered Palestinian thobe, Ms. Omar in a tradition-shattering hijab. Four weeks later, their uncompromising views on Israel have made them perhaps the most embattled new members of the Democratic House majority. Almost daily, Republicans brashly accuse Ms. Tlaib and Ms. Omar of anti-Semitism and bigotry, hoping to make them the Democrats’ version of Representative Steve King as they try to tar the...

It appears that the leadership of the Democratic Party has gone completely anti-Israel and is warming up to Jew-hatred. The appointment of Rep. Ilhan Omar to the House Foreign Affairs Committee – and the welcome extended to her by the chairman, (former) Israel-supporter Rep. Eliot Engel – confirms that the Democrats' big tent now extends to those who believe that Jews in Israel wield magical power to "hypnotize" non-Jews into acquiescence to their "evil." Omar was triumphant yesterday on her appointment to the plum committee: Ilhan Omar ✔@IlhanMN I finally have committee assignments and I am excited 1st choice- House...

The Democratic lawmaker — who has represented parts of the Bronx and Westchester County for three decades — added that there “wasn’t a great clamor” from lawmakers to keep the terrorism panel, which was formed after the Sept. 11th attacks. Instead, he said, his committee will focus on what Trump promised Russian President Vladimir Putin during their private meeting last year — and the president’s business ties to Russia and Middle East countries.

It was mid-May, about six weeks after Trump appointee Mari Stull began her new job as senior adviser at the State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs. As senior adviser at the bureau, Stull was in charge of making sure President Trump’s agenda was represented at the many international organizations the U.S. participates in and mostly funds, such as the United Nations and its various agencies. Stull and her boss, Amb. Kevin Moley, had just left for a trip to Geneva for the World Health Assembly. Back at the State Department, Erin Barclay, a senior career diplomat at the IO...

New York City's former top cop said Sunday that the Obama administration cut funding to fight terrorism in the city to retaliate against Sen. Chuck Schumer for opposing a nuclear deal with Iran. "There's a certain amount vindictiveness on the part of Washington aimed at Sen. Chuck Schumer," Ray Kelly, New York City's police commissioner under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said in an interview with John Catsimatidis on AM 970 in New York. "Apparently they remember very well that Sen. Schumer did not support their Iran deal," Kelly said, arguing the proposed cut "was aimed at getting a reaction from...

Representative Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) (D-Bronx) and 91 other Democrats sent a letter to Obama this week asking him to go even further with his executive actions and ban the import of "assault weapons." Engel wrote the letter, in which he claimed "a mass shooting on average each day this year in this country." He described Obama's executive action to expand background checks as "important," then asked Obama to use the language of the Gun Control Act of 1968 to stop "assault weapons" from entering the country....

On the day after Pope Francis spoke to Congress about the dangers of violent extremism in the name of religious fundamentalism, presidential candidate Ted Cruz, appearing at a Values Voter summit, threatened to murder Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Texas senator vowed that, if elected, he would “rip to shreds” the Iranian agreement deal recently passed through Congress, and kill the country’s leader if it didn’t give up its nuclear ambitions. “If the Ayatollah doesn’t understand that, we may have to help introduce him to the 72 virgins,” Cruz said to wild cheers from the audience of conservative Christians. The...

Turkey's geo-political maneuvers may urge reconsideration of its NATO membership. While the threat from Daesh grows, Ankara is more focused on the continuing fight with the Kurds. The Erdoğan government is undermining the core values of what NATO stands for, and its anti-Kurdish policy spells problems for its role in the region. NATO has to make a statement and also work behind the scenes to engage Erdoğan to prioritize the war against Daesh. Under the pretext of an anti-Daesh (ISIS) campaign, Turkey's government since late July 2015 is harshly repressing the Kurds, playing the ‘anti-terrorism' card towards NATO. But the...