Latest news with #IlhanOmar
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Colorado Dems face backlash for fundraiser with Ilhan Omar after Boulder terror attack: 'Reprehensible'
Colorado Democrats are facing criticism for leading a fundraiser with Rep. Ilhan Omar less than an hour after Sunday's antisemitic terrorist attack in which 12 people were hurt, including a Holocaust survivor. The suspect, 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, is facing federal hate crime charges and numerous state-level attempted murder charges for using incendiary devices to burn people who were rallying for the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza ever since the terrorist group attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Soliman was in the country illegally after overstaying his visa and work authorization, according to authorities. About 30 minutes later in nearby Denver, there was a "private reception" with Omar, who has been a major critic of Israel, with many other Democrats listed as the hosts. Ticket prices ranged from $500 to $7,000. Omar is a member of a progressive group of lawmakers in Congress called the "Squad." Rise In Antisemitic Extremism Fuels Wave Of Terror Plots In The United States Since 2020 "Colorado Democrats who raise money for a notorious anti-Semite should be ashamed of themselves for ever doing so, but doing it while victims of the latest wave of anti-Semitic violence were en route to the hospital is even more hypocritical and reprehensible," Colorado House Minority Caucus Chair Rep. Anthony Hartsook, a Republican, said in a statement on Monday. Read On The Fox News App "Just last year, House Democrats turned away families of Israeli hostages, denying them access to the House floor for fear that House Democrats' own radical members might cause a scene. Enough is enough. We must speak loudly and clearly against extremists who justify violence against Jewish communities worldwide. There is no place for anti-Semitism in Colorado," Harstook added. In the aftermath of the attack, Omar posted on X, "Violence against all forms is never acceptable. We must reject hatred and harm in all its forms." 'Squad' Members Condemn Antisemitic Attack In Boulder After Years Of Controversy Rep. Junie Joseph, D-Boulder, who attended the event, faced additional scrutiny, but she told Fox News Digital that she condemns antisemitism. "Sunday was a deeply painful day for our community. My heart is with the victims of the Boulder attack and all those affected. I unequivocally condemn hate and violence in all forms—including antisemitism and Islamophobia," Joseph said in an email to Fox News Digital. "I've heard concerns about my attendance at a private event for Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. I was originally invited to introduce her at a Young Democrats event focused on youth engagement—something I care deeply about. When she was unable to attend, I chose to welcome her at a separate gathering, as a matter of courtesy and civic respect," she continued. Holocaust Survivor Among Victims In Boulder, Colorado Suspected Terror Attack "Attending that event was not an endorsement of any particular policy or comment. It was an extension of my role as a public servant who believes in dialogue, inclusion, and maintaining open lines of communication—even when views differ." "Condemning antisemitism and supporting peace, dignity, and human rights for all—including Israelis and Palestinians—are not mutually exclusive. I believe both are essential to a just and compassionate society," Joseph further stated. "These are difficult times, and I remain committed to listening, learning, and leading with care—for all members of our community—Jewish, Muslim, and beyond." Fox News Digital reached out to Omar's campaign for article source: Colorado Dems face backlash for fundraiser with Ilhan Omar after Boulder terror attack: 'Reprehensible'
Fox News
5 hours ago
- General
- Fox News
Colorado Dems face backlash for fundraiser with Ilhan Omar after Boulder terror attack: 'Reprehensible'
Colorado Democrats are facing criticism for leading a fundraiser with Rep. Ilhan Omar less than an hour after Sunday's antisemitic terrorist attack in which 12 people were hurt, including a Holocaust survivor. The suspect, 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, is facing federal hate crime charges and numerous state-level attempted murder charges for using incendiary devices to burn people who were rallying for the release of hostages held by the terrorist group Hamas in Gaza. Soliman was in the country illegally after overstaying his visa and work authorization, according to authorities. About 30 minutes later in nearby Denver, there was a "private reception" with Omar, who has been a major critic of Israel, with many other Democrats listed as the hosts. Ticket prices ranged from $500 to $7,000. "Colorado Democrats who raise money for a notorious anti-Semite should be ashamed of themselves for ever doing so, but doing it while victims of the latest wave of anti-Semitic violence were en route to the hospital is even more hypocritical and reprehensible," Colorado House Minority Caucus Chair Rep. Anthony Hartsook, a Republican, said in a statement on Monday. "Just last year, House Democrats turned away families of Israeli hostages, denying them access to the House floor for fear that House Democrats' own radical members might cause a scene. Enough is enough. We must speak loudly and clearly against extremists who justify violence against Jewish communities worldwide. There is no place for anti-Semitism in Colorado," Harstook added. In the aftermath of the attack, Omar posted on X, "Violence against all forms is never acceptable. We must reject hatred and harm in all its forms." Rep. Junie Joseph, D-Boulder, who attended the event, faced additional scrutiny, but she told Fox News Digital that she condemns antisemitism. "Sunday was a deeply painful day for our community. My heart is with the victims of the Boulder attack and all those affected. I unequivocally condemn hate and violence in all forms—including antisemitism and Islamophobia," Joseph said in an email to Fox News Digital. "I've heard concerns about my attendance at a private event for Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. I was originally invited to introduce her at a Young Democrats event focused on youth engagement—something I care deeply about. When she was unable to attend, I chose to welcome her at a separate gathering, as a matter of courtesy and civic respect," she continued. "Attending that event was not an endorsement of any particular policy or comment. It was an extension of my role as a public servant who believes in dialogue, inclusion, and maintaining open lines of communication—even when views differ." "Condemning antisemitism and supporting peace, dignity, and human rights for all—including Israelis and Palestinians—are not mutually exclusive. I believe both are essential to a just and compassionate society," Joseph further stated. "These are difficult times, and I remain committed to listening, learning, and leading with care—for all members of our community—Jewish, Muslim, and beyond." Fox News Digital reached out to Omar's campaign for comment.
Fox News
a day ago
- General
- Fox News
'Squad' members condemn antisemitic attack in Boulder after years of controversy
Progressive Democrats spoke out against antisemitism following a terrorist attack in Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian national set peaceful protesters on fire at a demonstration to bring Israeli hostages home. "I am horrified by last night's horrific attack in Boulder," progressive Democrat and potential 2028 presidential candidate,Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said on X. "My heart is with the victims and our Jewish communities across the country. Antisemitism is on the rise here at home, and we have a moral responsibility to confront and stop it everywhere it exists." Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., who was voted off the House Foreign Affairs Committee in 2023 and was hit with a censure resolution in 2024 for alleged antisemitism, condemned the violence on Monday. "I'm holding the victims and families in Boulder, Colorado in my heart," Omar said in a social media post. "Violence against anyone is never acceptable. We must reject hatred and harm in all its forms." While Omar's censure resolution never passed, the House did vote to censure fellow "Squad" member Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., in 2023 for alleged anti-Israel comments. "The violent attack in Boulder is horrific. My heart goes out to all of the victims and their families. Violence has no place in our communities," Tlaib said on X. Two progressive Democrats, who joined Congress in 2022, also slammed the "antisemitic attack" in social media statements. "I am horrified by the antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colorado," Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, who was elected in 2022, said on social media. "My thoughts are with the victims, their families, and Jewish communities across the country. "Yesterday's antisemitic attack against those in Boulder, CO calling for the safe return of hostages is deplorable and heartbreaking," Rep. Delia C. Ramirez, D-Ill., said on X, condemning both violence against Gaza and violence in our local U.S. communities. "Neither bombing in Gaza nor violence perpetrated in our communities will bring us closer to peace. Only by recognizing our interconnected safety and shared humanity can we carve a path forward. As we hold those affected by the attack close, our nation's leaders must unite to reject all forms of hate and violence that continue to make us all less safe, and to honor the dignity of every human life," she added. Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., the first Gen-Z congressman, admitted he should have supported a resolution in 2023 condemning antisemitism on college campuses. He joined the progressive Democrats on Monday who condemned the attack. "I'm horrified to hear about the antisemitic attack in Boulder, just weeks after the shooting of two Israeli embassy officials in DC. My thoughts are with the victims and their families. There is no place for this hatred and violence — and we must keep working to end it. Political and bigoted violence in our country must be denounced swiftly and strongly by all," he said. One of the original "Squad" members who was elected in 2018, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., added on X on Monday afternoon, "The antisemitic attack in Boulder, Colorado is horrifying and unacceptable. Violence against innocent people is never the answer. It will never bring justice for anyone, and we must do everything to root it out. I pray for the victims, their loved ones, and everyone impacted." The Massachusetts Democrat also spoke out against President Donald Trump on Monday. "Donald Trump wants to sow fear & chaos in our communities so we feel alone & defeated — but we won't let him. Tune in as I join immigrant justice advocates, local leaders, & impacted families to tell Trump & ICE: Hands off our immigrant neighbors," Pressley wrote on X, as she directed her followers to a livestreamed event condemning Trump's deportation policies. As of Monday afternoon, "Squad" member, Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania did not condemn the attack on social media. Lee's office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Fox News
5 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Biden cover-up scandal could usher in new era of Republican dominance
This is the season of President Donald Trump, the Republican Party, conservatism and the MAGA movement. The Democratic Party is in dire straits. They sit at 21% approval in some polls. They have reduced themselves to defending illegals, gang members and other forms of criminality and corruption. They present no new ideas, just obstructionism. And with each issue they embrace, such as opposing cuts in federal spending or defending the waste, fraud and abuse of USAID or other federal agencies, for that matter, only drives them further down in the polls. They are also the party of antisemitism, repellent to most Americans who cherish our longtime friendship with the Jewish state. They have no answers to the ills afflicting Americans. Meanwhile, Trump and his Republican Party have a corner on the marketplace of ideas. From the border to inflation, the GOP has it all over the Sad Sack Democrats. Democrats must hate getting up in the morning. The newspapers and cable television only bring them more bad news, from the new charges against Andrew Cuomo, former Democrat governor of New York, to fresh revelations about the scandal of COVID-19 and the alleged criminality of Dr. Anthony Fauci, former chief medical advisor to the president, to Minnesota Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar's complete indifference to the murder of two young Israelis in Washington at the Israeli Embassy. Democrats must be asking themselves, "What fresh hell is this?" Of course, the story with the most damaging, long-term effect is the cover-up of former President Joe Biden's incipient mental state. Were we a constitutional republic during his time? Or were we governed by a devious cabal armed with an autopen? Even worse, the entire Democratic Party establishment was in on the cover-up and conspiracy of defending an emperor that not only had no clothes, but apparently wasn't even governing in the first place. The GOP is on offense, a good place to be in politics. Meanwhile, the Democrats are in a fox hole, fighting off incoming, completely on the defense. This all has long-term consequences. Just as President Abraham Lincoln kicked off a long period of Republican governance beginning in 1860, just as FDR and the Democrats initiated a long period of Democratic governance beginning in 1932, Trump could be kicking off a long period of Republican governance. Republicans are in motion. Trump is in motion. He knows politics is motion. During the Lincoln era, Republicans reminded voters of the "bloody shirt" to drive home to them it was Democrats, the party of slavery, who instigated the Civil War. Republicans will, in the future remind voters of the Biden cover-up by yelling, "Deceitful Democrats!" Watergate was indeed just a "third-rate burglary" compared to this culture wide scheme to deceive. The tea leaves were already appearing before this earthshaking scandal surrounding Biden. Look at the facts: Hispanic men shifted in large numbers toward the Republicans in the last election. So too did African American males. So too did young voters. White Americans held firm in almost all categories. Democrats often delude themselves. Case in point is the growing vegetative state of Biden. And I am sorry, Minnesota's Caspar Milquetoast governor Tim Waltz is not the answer to recapturing the male vote. The irony is that the insider establishment told themselves an old, old, old man, who was on the wrong side of all the issues, could win until it became screamingly obvious he could not. They then told themselves a lightweight do-nothing vice president, chosen for her race and sex and not for her intellect, could win. Ironically, she was chosen as Biden's insurance plan meaning there would be no way anyone would turn to Kamala Harris if and when Biden faltered. Everybody knew she was completely unqualified to be president. Lord Acton once cynically said, "The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern." Maybe so, but the Democrats, as decided by the voters, are indeed unfit to govern. The GOP controls the majority of governorships. The GOP controls the majority of state legislatures. And, in 23 states, the GOP has total control. The other states are at best mixed. Conservatives control the Supreme Court. Beyond the growing powers of Trump are the issues that favor the GOP, abortion is now off the table as conservatives acted on their federalism instincts and the Supreme Court sent the matter back to the states where behavioral issues like marriage, adoption and the death penalty belong. Anybody who looks beyond the point of their own nose has to see this massive Biden cover-up is not only the greatest scandal in American history, but it will have significant ramifications for our future. Liberal historians' credibility is shot. Jon Meacham, Michael Beschloss and others like them have no more authority. This has a significant impact on the future. True journalists will not be turning to them for comment as they are seen simply as liberal lackeys, especially Meacham who authored Biden's "Nuremberg Speech," denouncing half of America, one of the two worst speeches in presidential history, ranking with President Jimmy Carter's now notorious "Malaise" speech. The liberal media, too, is headed for the ash heap of history. Where will CNN's and MSNBC's ratings be in a year? Their viewership may be higher in Beijing than in Peoria. And, ironically, CNN anchor Jake Tapper, just as his book is topping the charts, has destroyed his credibility by being part of the original cover-up as a Biden apologist. Of course, the story with the most damaging, long-term effect is the cover-up of former President Joe Biden's incipient mental state. Were we a constitutional republic during his time? Or were we governed by a devious cabal armed with an autopen? Vindicated are the very few reporters who asked tough questions about Biden's mental competency. No longer does two plus two equal five. Which means the future is very bleak for the Democratic Party. They are a pariah party for now and the foreseeable future. They have reaped the whirlwind.
Miami Herald
6 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Congressional Dems ask judge to extend whistleblower case against UnitedHealth
More than two dozen Democrats in Congress, including U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, are asking a federal judge to let a whistleblower lawsuit move forward that alleges profiteering through the unlawful use of medical coding data by Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group. The lawmakers argue in their May 15 court filing that a jury should be allowed to pass judgment on company practices the U.S. Department of Justice alleges have wrongfully inflated corporate earnings from the Medicare Advantage (MA) program by billions of dollars at taxpayer expense. A special master who examined the evidence recommended earlier this year that the long-running whistleblower lawsuit should be terminated via summary judgment. "It's way past time to rein in the wasteful and harmful practices committed by corporate health insurers in MA starting with UnitedHealthcare," Omar said in a statement to the Minnesota Star Tribune. "I joined the amicus brief to finally hold them accountable for stealing money from taxpayers and abusing the Medicare Advantage program." The lawsuit, which the Justice Department joined as a plaintiff in 2017, argues UnitedHealth Group engaged in one-sided reviews of medical charts to find evidence supporting higher payments for the company, but failed to use the same techniques to fix billing codes that would tend to lower the company's fees. In a statement, UnitedHealth Group pointed to a March report from a court-appointed special master that concluded the Justice Department's extensive efforts thus far had not recorded evidence of overpayments or wrongdoing by the company. Medicare Advantage is a privatized version of the federal health insurance program for seniors, where beneficiaries receive government-funded benefits via private insurance companies that manage the network of doctors and hospitals members can visit. UnitedHealth Group operates UnitedHealthcare, which runs the nation's largest MA plan. UnitedHealth notes that the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services provides extensive oversight of the program. "As evidenced by the recently released risk adjustment validation audits, our results continue to demonstrate the accuracy of our coding and the integrity of our practices," the company said in a statement to the Star Tribune. "It is unfortunate to see politically motivated attempts by longtime opponents of Medicare Advantage trying to extend a case that has been thoroughly reviewed and found to lack merit." In her March 3 ruling, Special Master Suzanne Segal found a "complete failure of evidence" from the Justice Department to support key aspects of its lawsuit, and wrote of the company's practices: "There simply was no fraud." "The money at issue is alleged overpayments the government claims United received as a result of submitting allegedly invalid diagnosis codes in connection with the Medicare Advantage program," Segal wrote. "The fatal flaw in the government's case is the complete absence of evidence of such overpayments, an essential element of the government's claim." The Justice Department said in April that Segal's conclusions were " fundamentally flawed," arguing a federal court in California should let the litigation proceed. Judge Fernando Olguin will consider the special master's report at a hearing scheduled for June 12 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. It will be a pivotal moment in a case that dates back to 2011, when Benjamin Poehling, a former director of finance for UnitedHealth Group in Minnesota, filed his original whistleblower complaint. In Medicare Advantage, the government pays health insurers a per-member, per-month up-front payment to cover the cost of health care needs for beneficiaries, including higher fees for sicker populations. Health plans can increase their pay by submitting "risk adjustment" data on patients likely to need more care. The Justice Department argues that medical coding professionals hired by UnitedHealth reviewed charts to find data that would support higher payments to the company, but systematically ignored information that would have lowered fees from the government. "United cannot have it both ways," the lawmakers wrote in their amicus brief filed with the court. "It cannot argue, on one hand, that chart review is error prone and may be too complex to consistently identify unsupported codes, while simultaneously maintaining that its additional codes (and associated payments) are justifiable." The filing referenced the considerable scrutiny UnitedHealth has faced in recent years for its business practices in Medicare Advantage, including a 2023 report from the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. The watchdog agency found UnitedHealth was the biggest user among insurers of questionable diagnosis data to boost Medicare Advantage payments. Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported the Justice Department had launched a criminal fraud investigation of Medicare billing practices at UnitedHealth. "United is the world's most egregious upcoder and chief among the private MA insurers employing fraudulent and abusive tactics to retain funds that rightfully belong either in the Medicare Trust Funds or in the hands of the American taxpayers," the lawmakers said in their filing. Last week, Judge Olguin ordered UnitedHealth Group to file its response to the lawmakers' amicus brief by Friday. 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