OAN calls Lauren Boebert “pathetic and cowardly” for apologizing to Muslim community over her bigoted attacks on Ilhan Omar
OAN guest: “She's lost so many points in my book, in the book of many America First conservatives and populists who are looking at this as a complete surrender, complete cowardice.”
Published
Citation From the November 29, 2021, edition of OAN's Tipping Point
KARA MCKINNEY (HOST): For example, just the other day, [Rep. Lauren Boebert] made a joke to Ilhan Omar when they were in an elevator because, you know, Ilhan Omar being an extremist, she makes a joke about her being perhaps dangerous. And then, of course, it turns into somehow anti-Islam, which it was never. Boebert puts out an apology to Muslims, which I think was just a no, no, no, you don't apologize. That's not what the joke was about. But that's what she ends up doing. And now we actually have a clip that she came out today after having spoken to Omar on the phone. So let's play that for a second.
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MCKINNEY: What do you make of that?
GAVIN MARIO WAX (PRESIDENT, NEW YORK YOUNG REPUBLICAN CLUB): Oh, it's so pathetic and cowardly. I mean, you never apologize, do not apologize, do not let them set the narrative. And certainly do not apologize to an anti-American antisemitic radical like Ilhan Omar, who has plenty to actually apologize for. Apologizing is the biggest show of weakness. She had nothing to apologize for. This is absolutely ridiculous. She needs to stop listening to RNC establishment-picked D.C. staffers who are telling her what to do. She's lost so many points in my book, in the book of many America First conservatives and populists who are looking at this as a complete surrender, complete cowardice, which is -- which it is, and it sends a horrible message to all her people who have supported her and who have backed her. We need to find Republicans that actually have a spine. I think too many people, you know, like Lauren Boebert, you know, they'll wear -- you know, they'll have the open carry on Capitol Hill and they'll, you know, make this big show and they'll kind of be cartoony in a way. But then when push comes to shove on something like this, they fold the second they get any criticism. I mean, it was enough that she apologized. To put out this video that claim that she was going to reveal the details of the call, which she shouldn't even have called it to begin with. And then it released no details of the call. It's just bad comms. It's bad messaging, and it's just weak. It is so pathetic and we need to learn and we need to stop making these stupid, unforced errors.
MCKINNEY: I know. She should have said, well, I guess someone said something and make a joke off of what Ilhan Omar said in relation to 9/11. And I think that it goes to this idea that a lot of times we as Republicans, we almost present ourselves to the public -- I mean, the left does us no favors. I mean, they control the media and everything else about our image. But I mean, we don't do ourselves any favors when we act like ankle biters to Democrats. As if Democrats are the ones with all the power, and so we always have to be either responding to what they say or, you know, saying sorry and trying to act like the bigger people. Somehow, that's more principled. Really, I think at this point, I mean, someone like Ilhan Omar, who went after Kyle Rittenhouse, a minor, for the past year, calling him a white supremacist and domestic terrorist, and she never apologized for that, even though now he's been cleared of everything. I mean, so she's the last person anyone should be apologizing to for all the rhetoric she said. And I really think at this point, Republicans, when we deal with the left, we have to remember these aren't people that we are can have this good-faith dialogue with. These are people who are playing to win. They're playing for keeps. And I think more Republicans should either a) ignore and make these people like they're completely irrelevant. Or if we do engage with them, we should just mock them and act dismissively, would you say?
WAX: Oh yeah, we should double down. You should hit them back twice as hard. If they want to attack you for something, don't apologize and counterattack, counterattack, counterattack, counterattack. That's what the left does. They've mastered this and we're constantly, like you said, on the back foot. We're letting them set the narrative. We're arguing on their terms, with their framework, with their narrative. And we never fight back. That's why we continue to lose in the eyes of the public. It's pathetic. And you know, someone like Lauren Boebert should not be in this kind of position. I mean, she should be the one who's carrying the torch and taking the fight back to Ilhan Omar. There's plenty to work with, as Trump says -- said once famously in the debate stage in the primaries in 2015. There's plenty to work with when it comes with Ilhan Omar. I mean, just talk about the corruption scandals or the immigration scandals, or all the horrendous things she said about 9/11 or about, you know, Jewish people or about just this country in general. I mean, why are we -- this is the last person in the Democrat caucus that we should ever be apologizing to. And it just goes to show that there are so many phonies, so many fakes in the Republican caucus that claim to be one thing but are completely another thing. And they think that they can pull the wool over, you know, the grassroots and the base and their voters and their supporters. But people are wising up to this, this lost her a lot of support, and it's going to really hurt her come her next election
MCKINNEY: I know. Boebert, she needs to stay away from the McCarthy talking points, even if they're twisting her arm behind the scenes. I mean, because if it's a McCarthy-type talking point, it probably was written by Frank Luntz, and that's nothing good for any of us.