Speaker Nancy Pelosi Nancy PelosiPelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare House lawmakers reach deal to avert shutdown Centrist Democrats 'strongly considering' discharge petition on GOP PPP bill MORE (D-Calif.) doubled down on her defense of 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.) on Friday, telling an audience at The Economic Club that the Minnesota congresswoman is not anti-Semitic.

During an interview Friday in Washington, Pelosi reiterated her belief that Omar does not hold anti-Jewish views, and maintained that her criticism of Israel had led her to espouse language that some viewed with a second meaning.

"The incident that happened with [Omar], I don't think our colleague is anti-Semitic," Pelosi said Friday.

"I think she has a different experience in the use of words, doesn't understand that some of them are fraught with meaning," Pelosi added of the freshman Democratic congresswoman who came to the U.S. as a refugee with her family in 1995.

"The incident that happened with, I don't think our colleague is anti-Semitic, I think she has a different experience in the use of words, doesn't understand that some of them are fraught with meaning, that she, what, didn't realize." - @speakerpelosi on @ilhan



This is unreal pic.twitter.com/Qh0xVzpzlz — Cameron Gray (@Cameron_Gray) March 8, 2019

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Her comments mirrored remarks she made a day earlier in her colleague's defense to reporters on Capitol Hill, while noting that Democrats must "remove all doubt" of their commitment to equality and against discrimination.

"I don't think that the congresswoman perhaps appreciates the full weight of how it was heard by other people, although I don't believe it was intended in an anti-Semitic way," Pelosi said Thursday. "But the fact is, if that's how it was interpreted, we have to remove all doubt."

The House this week passed a resolution originally set to condemn Omar's remarks that was broadened after Democrats faced backlash from the party's progressive base for appearing to stand with Republicans against Omar's criticism of the U.S. relationship with Israel.

Numerous Republicans refused to sign on to the anti-hatred resolution, which passed Thursday, after it was broadened from addressing just anti-Semitism and did not rebuke Omar by name.