Rep. Rashida Tlaib: I Feel More Palestinian In Halls Of Congress Than With My Grandmother

By Nicole Belle — April 14, 2019

When the stochastic terrorist in the White House was all but approving crosshairs on freshman congressperson Ilhan Omar, Democrats nationwide demanded that their elected representatives stand up for Omar and stand against the Islamophobia and hate in which Donald Trump regularly peddles.

Some were exactly what Democrats should say:

Members of Congress have a duty to respond to the President’s explicit attack today.@IlhanMN’s life is in danger. For our colleagues to be silent is to be complicit in the outright, dangerous targeting of a member of Congress.

We must speak out.

“First they came...” pic.twitter.com/ygOX1vhE9j

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 12, 2019

The President is inciting violence against a sitting Congresswoman—and an entire group of Americans based on their religion. It's disgusting. It's shameful. And any elected leader who refuses to condemn it shares responsibility for it.

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 13, 2019

Ilhan Omar is a leader with strength and courage. She won't back down to Trump's racism and hate, and neither will we. The disgusting and dangerous attacks against her must end.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 13, 2019

Others less so:

The memory of 9/11 is sacred ground, and any discussion of it must be done with reverence. The President shouldn’t use the painful images of 9/11 for a political attack.

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) April 13, 2019

As a Senator who represents 9/11 victims, I can't accept any minimizing of that pain. But Trump's dangerous rhetoric against @IlhanMN is disgusting. It’s a false choice to suggest we can’t fight terrorism and reject Islamophobic hate at once—a president should do both.

— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) April 13, 2019

But Rep. Rashida Tlaib, like Omar, a freshman female Muslim congressperson, felt that both sides of Congress has fallen short of truly embracing diversity, including her own party.

They put us in photos when they want to show our party is diverse. However, when we ask to be at the table, or speak up about issues that impact who we are, what we fight for & why we ran in the first place, we are ignored. To truly honor our diversity is to never silence us. https://t.co/7T1OlwS1YG

— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) April 13, 2019

Tlaib appeared on AM Joy to remind her fellow congresspeople that she was elected by a truly diverse and representative demographic of America and it's time for the old guard to catch up to the changing face of America.

"What I am taken aback by is the institution we're in. I told somebody I feel more Palestinian in Congress than I do when I visit my grandmother in Palestine. That alone--this sense of identity--being at the forefront when, you know, Ilhan Omar and myself, Alexandria [Ocasio-Cortez], Ayanna [Pressley] so many women, incredible women, we were standing up in our communities and organizing our communities around economic justice issues, myself around environmental justice issues. So for us this was continuing our giving back to the community that raised us and for so many in Congress I think it's, you know, both sides, they are just kind of taken aback. Like, wow, ‘They got elected?'

Yeah, we did. We did because we outwork hate, but we also know that our neighbors, the communities that we are growing -- raising our children in, myself and Ilhan, this is communities that are coming from a place of love and respect and choosing us because we are the best person for the job, not because of our ethnic backgrounds but they can see that we care more than any of our opponents did and we care more about the future of our country."