Tlaib says political figures 'need to be very careful' about their comments after students confront Chelsea Clinton over Omar response

During a vigil Friday for the 50 people killed in a shooting at two New Zealand mosques, New York University student Leen Dweik was seen on video criticizing Clinton for "all that you have done and all the Islamophobia that you have stoked."

Clinton weighed in last month on Omar's comments alleging that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee bankrolls pro-Israel politicians, tweeting, "We should expect all elected officials, regardless of party, and all public figures to not traffic in anti-Semitism."

Clinton's criticism joined a chorus of backlash from both sides of the aisle, with House Democratic leadership issuing a statement urging Omar to apologize for using "anti-Semitic tropes."

Asked by CNN's Jake Tapper what she thought of the video, Tlaib highlighted the death threats that she and Omar -- two of the three Muslim representatives in Congress -- have received since taking office.

"I can just tell you the kind of public disagreement and the kind of language that sometimes is being used toward disagreeing with her on a number of fronts, foreign policy issues," Tlaib said. "People need to be very careful."

She added, "I have seen the letters and have seen the various posts from not only Republicans but also Democrats that when we target or disagree, we need to be very careful in that it's not feeding into the Islamophobia that is growing in our country."

In the video of the interaction with the students, Clinton apologizes to the students, saying, "I am so sorry that you feel that way, that certainly was never my intention. I do believe words matter. I believe we have to show solidarity."

"They do matter," Dweik replies, motioning to others at the vigil. "And this, this, this right here is the result of a massacre stoked by people like you and the words that you put out into the world. And I want you to know that, and I want you to feel that deep inside, that 49 people died because of the rhetoric that you put out there."

Clinton's team declined to comment on the exchange. Clinton was a co-founder of NYU's multifaith Of Many Institute, along with Imam Khalid Latif and Rabbi Yehuda Sarna, who also attended the vigil.

Cenk Uygur, host of the left-leaning Young Turks, came to Clinton's defense on Twitter, saying that while he didn't agree with Clinton's original comments about Omar, "she didn't deserve the level of vitriol at the vigil where she came to help."

Paul Begala, a CNN contributor and former advisor to Bill Clinton, said the younger Clinton has "tried to use her platform to promote healing and reconciliation and not division."

"What Chelsea is doing is really admirable and I think she's a good model of how we all ought to be conducting ourselves -- with grace and an appeal toward unity," Begala said.

In a comment to CNN, Dweik and her friend Rose Asaf, said that they wanted to hold Clinton accountable for her "harmful" comments on Omar.

"When we saw Chelsea Clinton at the vigil for 49 lives cut short by a militant white supremacist determined to kill Muslims, we saw an opportunity to access someone who has a huge public platform, and who used that platform to attack Rep. Ilhan Omar -- our only Black, Muslim, Somali, and refugee member of Congress," the two wrote. "Clinton's false accusations of antisemitism against Rep Omar was deeply harmful. We took our chance to speak truth to power."

Dweik and Asaf also cited Clinton's response to Omar as their motivation to speak with Clinton at the vigil in a BuzzFeed column published Saturday.

"We were profoundly disappointed when Chelsea Clinton used her platform to fan those flames," the women wrote, adding, "We were shocked when Clinton arrived at the vigil, given that she had not yet apologized to Rep. Omar for the public vilification against her. We thought it was inappropriate for her to show up to a vigil for a community she had so recently stoked hatred against."

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