While Minnesota Rep. Ilhan While Omar’s remarks may fade from the headlines, there’s little reason to think Democrats will finish arguing amongst themselves anytime soon. | AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite Politics Omar bails out Trump Democrats used to be happily united in their opposition to Trump. It’s getting more complicated.

She snidely refers to him as “Individual 1.” She has denounced him for “sabotaging the economy.” And she has accused him of engaging in “dehumanizing rhetoric.”

But this week, freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) has been President Donald Trump’s dream come true.


Amid a punishing run of bad news for Trump — ranging from his failed North Korea summit to the scathing testimony of his former lawyer Michael Cohen to an imminent political rebuke by the Republican Senate — Omar has instead consumed the political headlines, giving Democratic lawmakers a taste of the scandal and controversy that has dogged Republicans for the past two years.

Omar’s blunt anti-Israel statements, which even many Democrats call anti-Semitic, have not only fractured her party but have created a rival political narrative to Trump’s mounting setbacks. Where a few weeks ago, cable television networks cut to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s live commentary about Trump and Russia, this week they carried her uncomfortable words about seething fellow Democrats.

POLITICO Playbook newsletter Sign up today to receive the #1-rated newsletter in politics Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

“It’s a gift,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), asked about the chaos in the House Democratic Caucus.

It’s also something of a new development in the Trump era —and a very welcome one for the White House.

Democrats have spent two years gleefully united in their bitter opposition to Trump, voting down Republican legislation and putting their GOP colleagues on the spot over every over-the-top presidential tweet. But victory in the 2018 midterm elections, which delivered Democrats control of the House chamber, is already spotlighting cleavages within the party — including on the subject of Israel — that have gotten scant attention over the past two years.

While Omar’s remarks may fade from the headlines, there’s little reason to think Democrats will finish arguing among themselves anytime soon. Another young freshman, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), is building Trump-like star power and putting Democratic leaders on the spot with far-left rhetoric. Meanwhile, a crowded 2020 Democratic primary could feature bitter internecine fights on everything from the wisdom of a “Green New Deal” to talk of “Medicare for All” to America’s posture towards Israel.

As Pelosi and Democratic leadership have come under pressure to rebuke Omar, for example, three of the party’s presidential candidates — Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — pushed back. The result was a watered-down resolution introduced on Thursday that did not single out Omar by name and condemned both “anti-Semitism” and “anti-Muslim discrimination.”

Republicans pounced, arguing that a Democratic lurch to the left — and flirtations with socialism and anti-Semitism — has given their party a comeback opportunity in the suburbs, where they were thrashed in last year’s midterm elections.

The House GOP-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC on Thursday sent a memo to donors arguing that lawmakers like Omar and Ocasio-Cortez are opening up a path for the GOP to retake the House in 2020.

“The presidential primary and insurgent freshman are sure to only drive their party’s agenda further left and provide a clear choice for voters moving forward: economic opportunity or socialism. Republicans can win in the suburbs and beyond by making this strong contrast,” CLF president Dan Conston wrote in the memo, which pointed to the “openly anti-Semitic commentary” of a an unnamed House Democrat.

Omar’s remarks and the Democrats’ struggle to deal with the blowback have also conveniently united the president and Republican lawmakers in common cause.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor on Wednesday to denounce Omar for propagating “crude, hateful, and backward anti-Semitic stereotypes.” He followed up on Thursday by pooh-poohing the resolution Pelosi had introduced to try to put the controversy to rest, mocking her for adding language condemning all forms of hate, including anti-Semitism.

Trump himself, who revels in facing off with his political opponents, seized on Omar’s remarks, telling reporters during a Cabinet meeting, “I think she should either resign from Congress or she should certainly resign from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.”

In truth, Republicans are no more united behind the president now than they have been over the tumultuous two years of his tenure. White House aides are in the midst of a pressure campaign pushing GOP lawmakers not to support a resolution set to rebuke the president for invoking his national emergency powers to build his border wall. Next week, Trump is likely to quash the measure with the first veto of his presidency.

That will extend a losing streak for Trump that includes November’s midterm washout, an unpopular government shutdown, his failed fight with Congress for more border wall money and, most recently, an uptick in illegal crossings at the southern border and a ballooning trade deficit.

On Thursday, however, the media were more interested in the spectacle unfolding inside the Democratic Party — and Democratic lawmakers were furious. “What do you guys want to talk about? You want to talk about divide in the caucus over these new members,” said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). That divide, she said, was being “exploited” both by Republicans and the news media.

“The president of the United States, talking about neo-Nazis … that there are ‘fine people’ on both sides — he is the hate mongerer in chief,” she added, in a reference to Trump’s commentary after a summer 2018 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va. “So if you want to look for divides and inappropriateness, you can look at the Republicans from the top down.”

“This is not the narrative Democrats wanted in the first few months of their new majority,” said former Rep. Steve Israel, a former chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “They need to grab back the narrative and reset it.”

Alex Isenstadt, Burgess Everett, and Elena Schneider contributed to this report.