Trump’s attacks on the Squad, which also includes Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), “are intentionally done to rile up the racist instincts of a portion of his base,” said Dylan Williams, of the left-leaning pro-Israel group J Street. “This double standard that’s being applied to these congresswomen is very clear, and it’s not a standard that has been applied to other congressional critics of Israeli policy and the occupation.” Omar, who is Black, Muslim and an immigrant from Somalia, represents “a perfect storm of characteristics that they could try to attack and portray as the problem to a white evangelical base,” said Yousef Munayyer, the executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights.
“Rep. McCollum,” Munayyer added, “didn’t fit the poster.”
McCollum, who grew up in south St. Paul, trained as a social studies teacher. After she graduated, she had a hard time finding full-time work, so she took on long-term substitute teaching jobs and worked part time at Sears. In 1984, McCollumn’s toddler daughter fractured her skull falling off a playground slide that didn’t have enough sand at its base. The girl recovered quickly, but the city didn’t do anything about the playground until after McCollum pushed for it at a City Council meeting — a victory that prompted her to run for local office. She served on the City Council and in the Minnesota statehouse before she was elected to Congress in 2000.
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