Tlaib said in a recent interview that she has a “calming feeling” when she thinks about the genocide because her Palestinian ancestors “lost their land” and “lost their lives” amid an effort “to create a safe haven for Jews” in the Middle East, even though it was “forced on them” and took away their “human dignity.”

ADVERTISEMENT

“Democrat Rep. Tlaib is being slammed for her horrible and highly insensitive statement on the Holocaust,” Trump tweeted. “She obviously has tremendous hatred of Israel and the Jewish people. Can you imagine what would happen if I ever said what she said, and says?”

Democrat Rep. Tlaib is being slammed for her horrible and highly insensitive statement on the Holocaust. She obviously has tremendous hatred of Israel and the Jewish people. Can you imagine what would happen if I ever said what she said, and says? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2019

Congressional Republican leaders have criticized Tlaib, accusing her of saying she felt she had a “calming feeling” about the Holocaust itself and not the event surrounding the creation of the Jewish state.

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise Stephen (Steve) Joseph ScaliseHouse GOP slated to unveil agenda ahead of election House panel details 'serious' concerns around Florida, Georgia, Texas, Wisconsin elections Scalise hit with ethics complaint over doctored Barkan video MORE (R-La.) said, “there is no justification for the twisted and disgusting comments made by Rashida Tlaib just days after the annual Day of Holocaust Remembrance.”

“More than six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust; there is nothing ‘calming’ about that fact,” he said.

Rep. Liz Cheney Elizabeth (Liz) Lynn CheneyOVERNIGHT ENERGY: Cheney asks DOJ to probe environmental groups | Kudlow: 'No sector worse hurt than energy' during pandemic | Trump pledges 'no politics' in Pebble Mine review Cheney asks DOJ to probe environmental groups Press: The big no-show at the RNC MORE (R-Wyo.) said in a statement on Sunday that Tlaib's comments were “sickening.”

“Representative Tlaib’s comments about the Holocaust are sickening,” Cheney said. “I call on Speaker Pelosi and Leader Hoyer to finally take action against Representative Tlaib and other members of the Democratic caucus who are spreading vile anti-Semitism.”

Tlaib has stood by her comments, saying on Sunday that Republicans are trying to “ignite vile attacks” against her by taking her comments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “out of context.”

“Policing my words, twisting & turning them to ignite vile attacks on me will not work,” she tweeted on Sunday night. “I will never allow you to take my words out of context to push your racist and hateful agenda. The truth will always win.”

The president has repeatedly sought to use controversies surrounding Democrats as a political cudgel heading into the 2020 election where he believes he can win Jewish support even though opinion polls have indicated otherwise.

Trump has also criticized Rep. Ilhan Omar Ilhan OmarOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Trump attacks Omar for criticizing US: 'How did you do where you came from?' Democrats scramble on COVID-19 relief amid division, Trump surprise MORE (D-Minn.), who was one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress alongside Tlaib, for comments she has made about Jews and Israel and called on her to resign.

The president has faced widespread backlash in the Jewish community and elsewhere after saying there were “very fine people on both sides” of a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., where a counterprotester was killed and demonstrators chanted “Jews will not replace us.”

Updated at 10:49 a.m.