Last week, a video of Congresswoman Lauren Boebert referring to fellow House Representative Ilhan Omar as part of the “Jihad Squad,” went viral. The comments were made to a crowd of supporters during what seemed to be a fundraising event — or just a really lame open mic night at a far-right comedy club.
In the minute-long clip, Boebert told a story about getting on an elevator with Omar as a Capitol Police officer frantically tried to chase her down, presumably to stop her. Boebert joked that while she was alarmed at the police officer’s behavior, Omar “didn’t have a backpack on” so she figured she’d be fine — implying that because Omar is Muslim, she’s automatically suspected of being a terrorist. Boebert has since apologized for her remarks — though obviously not sincerely enough because a phone call between the two women ended with Omar claiming the Colorado conservative refused to acknowledge her story was made up and doubled down on her harmful rhetoric.
And now, CNN has shared a shocking new video, dated back in September of this year, where Boebert once again told the story of the Omar elevator incident, making tasteless Islamophobic jokes and changing some key details. The video shows Boebert telling a crowd of Republican donors that she and a staffer got into the elevator with Omar, but there’s no mention of a Capitol Police officer in this version. She makes the same backpack quip and labels Omar “Jihad Squad” before going on to call both her and fellow Muslim Representative Rashida Tlaib “black-hearted, evil women.” Besides this video seriously calling into question whether this incident ever happened (and Omar says that it did not happen) or it was just made up by Boebert to gain some weird, anti-Muslim clout, it also shows a pattern of bigotry by Boebert towards her co-workers, simply because they practice a different faith from her own.