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On today’s episode of The View, the ABC talk show’s hosts slammed Rep. Lauren Boebert for making recent anti-Muslim remarks about Rep. Ilhan Omar, leading to a larger conversation about the Republican Party’s place in Congress today.
In an undated video that went viral last Thursday, Boebert recounted an alleged incident where she was getting into an elevator when a Capitol police officer rushed to the elevator and tried to open the door as it was closing. She claimed that, upon seeing Omar to her left, she said: “Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine.” This implied that Omar — who is Muslim — could’ve been carrying explosives in a backpack. Boebert also called Omar a part of the so-called “jihad squad.”
Although Boebert later apologized to Omar via Twitter, Omar tweeted that the entire incident was made up. “Congress can’t be a place where hateful and dangerous Muslim tropes get no condemnation,” she added.
The View guest host Jane Coaston worried about whether Congress can actually hold Boebert accountable. “She was elected to do that. This is a performance,” she said, comparing Boebert’s behavior to former President Donald Trump gaining popularity for being “the biggest possible jerk you can be.”
“I think this type of performativity in Congress really shows why so many people are distrustful of Congress,” Coaston continued. “Because people are elected who do this, then they do this, and it’s like, ‘What bills are you passing? What do you support? What are your ideas?'”
Sunny Hostin pushed back against Coaston’s concerns, saying: “I do think that we can’t just throw our hands up and say there’s nothing we can do. I think she can be censored, I think she should be stripped of her committees.”
However, she did note that things could change further if Kevin McCarthy becomes Majority Leader of the House of Representatives and reinstates Congress members like Majorie Taylor Greene and Adam Kinzinger on Congressional committees.
“Kevin McCarthy [has] said that the Republican Party is a big tent party,” Hostin said. “And it seems to me that that big tent party includes insurrectionists, it includes white nationalists, it includes fear-mongers, and there needs to be something done.”
Moderator Whoopi Goldberg chimed in, adding, “I hate to say this, but they’ve always been there… The question now becomes, how fast can we come back?”
The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC. Scroll up to watch a clip from today’s episode.
