Freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., told Fox News on Monday that it was "silly" to compare President Trump with former President Barack Obama, adding: "One is human. The other is really not."
Omar's comments came after she told Politico in an interview published last Friday that the Obama administration was responsible for the “caging of kids” at the U.S.-Mexico border and the “droning of countries around the world."
"I think for many of us, we think of ourselves as Democrats. But many of the ways that our Democratic leaders have conducted themselves within the system is not one that we are all proud of," Omar said in an audio recording of the interview which she tweeted out over the weekend. " ... And when we talk about waking people up from complacency, it's to say that we can't be only upset with Trump because he's not a politician who sells us his policies in the most perfect way. His policies are bad, but many of the people who came before him also had really bad policies. They just were more polished than he was."
After the interview was published, Omar accused Politico reporter Tim Alberta on Twitter of distorting her words. However, she deleted the tweet after the recording she attached to the tweet confirmed her statements.
BILL MAHER CHANGES TUNE ON ILHAN OMAR: AFTER READING HER TWEETS, SAYS SHE 'MIGHT BE' ANTI-SEMITIC
The published interview capped off a turbulent week for Omar, who became the center of a debate over her suggestion that supporters of Israel were pushing lawmakers to pledge "allegiance" to the Jewish state. The comments, which critics said echoed an age-old “dual loyalties” smear against Jewish politicians, were condemned in a broad anti-bigotry resolution passed by the House last Thursday.
The resolution did not mention Omar by name, leading President Trump to call it "disgraceful." On Friday, the president told reporters that Democrats "have become an anti-Israel party. They've become an anti-Jewish party, and that's too bad."
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Trump's daughter, Ivanka, converted to Judaism before marrying her husband, Jared Kushner.
On Monday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump was "an unwavering and committed ally to Israel and the Jewish people and, frankly, the remarks that have been made by a number of Democrats and failed to be called out by Democrat leadership is frankly abhorrent and it's sad."
Fox News' Guerin Hays and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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