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Ilhan Omar accuses Meghan McCain of hypocrisy towards 'Bernie bros' over online attacks

The freshman representive says the co-host regularly shares 'anti-Muslim' smears about her

Danielle Zoellner
New York
Friday 21 February 2020 19:35 GMT
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Representative Ilhan Omar has accused The View's Meghan McCain of hypocrisy for her opinions about Bernie Sanders supporters and their online attacks given her own social media behaviour.

"The same people who chastise the progressive movement regularly traffic in anti-Muslim smears and hate speech against me and those I represent," the freshman representative wrote in a tweet Thursday.

"It's almost as if they don't genuinely care about online harassment," she added.

Ms Omar has previously accused the co-host and other conservatives of spreading anti-Muslim propoganda about her on social media.

Included with Ms Omar's tweet was two screengrabs of tweets the co-host recently posted.

In the first tweet, Ms McCain attacked Mr Sanders for his supporters' behaviour online, specifically towards women.

"Bernie — your army of Bernie bro's are the worst in all of the internet and every woman on both sides knows it. Mysoginistic, abusive and inspired by you," she wrote. "There's no army of Pete bots or Biden bots abusing women!"

Ilhan Omar has accused The View's Meghan McCain of hypocrisy towards online bullying
Ilhan Omar has accused The View's Meghan McCain of hypocrisy towards online bullying (Getty)

The second screengrab showed Ms McCain retweeting a news story with an unconfirmed claim that the representative married her brother to get him US citizenship.

"How is this not a bigger deal?" Ms McCain wrote in a since-deleted tweet.

She was slammed by Ms Omar for being "desperate" to discredit her and her political platform by spreading false claims.

"Paying people to generate fake new stories in order to delegitimize me and those I represent isn't a good look," Ms Omar wrote. "Desperation is a sad mobilizing tool."

The two women clashed last year after Ms McCain brought up the representative's rhetoric onlihne, saying it was anti-semetic.

“I do think when we are having conversations about anti-Semitism we should be looking at the most extreme on both sides, and I would bring up Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and some of her comments that got so much attention,” McCain told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos after a deadly shooting at a synagogue in California.

Ms Omar, who apologized for the tweets that were viewed as anti-semetic, responded to a video showing Ms McCain's interview.

She wrote: "Oh, bless her heart."

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