Trump doesn't want 'violence' toward Rep. Omar, Sarah Sanders claims, but ...

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said on Sunday President Donald Trump wishes 'no ill will' against Rep. Ilhan Omar but added he is right to call out her comments on the September 11th attacks. 

'Certainly the president is wishing no ill will, and certainly not violence towards anyone but the president is absolutely and should be calling out the congresswoman for her not only one time but history of anti-Semitic comments,' Sanders said on ABC's 'This Week.'

She decried Omar's description of the 9/11 terror attacks as 'people who did something' as 'abhorrent.' 

'It's absolutely abhorrent the comments she continues to make and has made and [Democrats] look the other way. I find what her comments to be absolutely disgraceful and unbefitting of a member of Congress and I think that it's a good thing that the president is calling her out for those comments, and the big question is why aren't Democrats doing it as well,' Sanders said. 

Democrats rushed to defend the freshman lawmaker, who is one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, and said Trump's targeting of Omar could put her life in danger.  

And Omar herself hit back at the president Saturday in a series of explosive tweets, insisting she remains undeterred by Trump's criticism and will continue to 'fight and defend' democracy against his administration's policies.

Omar became the subject of controversy yet again last week after remarks she made last month in reference to the 9/11 terror attacks resurfaced.

An outraged Donald Trump tweeted 'WE WILL NEVER FORGET' on Friday night, accompanied by a 43 second video that showed Omar's comment during a speech to the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), interspersed with footage from September 11, 2001.

But on Saturday, Omar took to Twitter to speak out against the President's attack, insisting she 'didn't run for Congress to be silent.'

'This country was founded on the ideas of justice, of liberty, of the pursuit of happiness. But these core beliefs are under threat [from the Trump administration]' she wrote.

'Each and every day. We are under threat by an administration that would rather cage children than pass comprehensive immigration reform.'

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The Minnesota democrat then when on to suggest that Trump would rather show prejudice towards transgender members of the armed forces than 'fight for equality and opportunity for all'.

'I did not run for Congress to be silent. I did not run for Congress to sit on the sidelines,' she added. 'I ran because I believed it was time to restore moral clarity and courage to Congress.'

'No one person – no matter how corrupt, inept, or vicious – can threaten my unwavering love for America. I stand undeterred to continue fighting for equal opportunity in our pursuit of happiness for all Americans.' 

Omar concluded her rousing thread by thanking those that continued to stick by her in her fight to establish an 'America we all deserve.'  

The video shared by Trump on Friday only showed part of Omar's speech and her fellow Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was quick to clap-back at the president's outburst. 

Ocasio-Cortez branded the tweet a 'dangerous' declaration of prejudice that could possibly incite harm against politician already facing a slew of death threats and abuse. 

'Members of Congress have a duty to respond to the President's explicit attack today,' Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Friday evening. '[Ilhan Omar's] life is in danger. For our colleagues to be silent is to be complicit in the outright, dangerous targeting of a member of Congress. We must speak out.'

Alongside the rally cry, the New York Democratic also shared a picture of Martin Niemöller's famous poem 'First they came…' that was inspired by the Holocaust and hangs on the wall of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC.

The poem reads: 'First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.'

Despite the poem sharing similar themes to her tweet, Ocasio-Cortez sparked outrage online among critics who believed her use of Niemöller's famed piece was 'disturbing' in defense of Omar.

The outrage stemmed from a number of comments the Somali-American Democrat has made over the past few months regarding Israel. 

The criticism was first ignited after she suggested US support of the middle-eastern country is 'All about the Benjamins' – which many interpreted as a nod to the bigoted trope that rich Jews control the world. 

'There's something deeply disturbing about AOC making Holocaust references to defend an open and unrepentant anti-Semite who is merely being criticized,' conservative commentator Ben Shapiro tweeted.

Senior editor of the Federalist, David Harasanyi added: 'This is just a shameful attempt to chill speech. It belittles both the real victims of 9/11 and the Holocaust.' 

However, on Saturday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rushed to defend Omar and said the president 'shouldn't use the painful images of 9/11 for a political attack.'

In a statement released while she was in Germany visiting American troops that 'the memory of 9/11 is sacred ground, and any discussion of it must be done with reverence.' She said 'it is wrong for the president, as commander-in-chief, to fan the flames to make anyone less safe.'

In her full speech to CAIR last month, Omar said: 'Far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen and frankly, I'm tired of it and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it.

'CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something, and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.'

Since the controversial comments resurfaced, Omar has defended what she said, using an example of George W. Bush making similar remarks in the wake of the tragedy and marking the difference in reaction.

Omar has said the furor surrounding the comments - which she believes were taken out of context - stem from the fact that she is Muslim, and not white 

'Was Bush downplaying the terrorist attack? What if he was a Muslim,' she asked on Twitter.

Progressive Democrats, including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, lined up to support Omar.

They called the president's behavior 'disgusting' and noted that Omar was already receiving death threats.

Sanders said on Saturday: 'Remember, George W. Bush, I didn't have a lot in common with him.

'What did he do a few days after 9/11, he went into a mosque. You remember that? He went into a mosque to say that criminals, terrorists, attacked the United States, not the Muslim community. That's what he did. It's true. We have had a president who for cheap political gain is trying to divide us up, by the color of our skin ... by our religion. 

'By God, that is not what a president should - we can disagree, for God's sakes, that's democracy, but you don't have the

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