When asked about fellow Minnesota Democrat lawmaker Ilhan Omar, Representative Colin Petersen had a response, “I don’t defend her. She doesn’t belong in our party.”

Petersen is the Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.

According to The Daily Wire:

An employee at the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) asked Peterson, “Do you have any comment as to why you defended Ilhan Omar?”

“I don’t defend her. She doesn’t belong in our party,” Peterson, a 16-term lawmaker, responded, according to video of the remarks that was obtained by the New York Post.

When asked to clarify his remarks, Peterson reportedly doubled down, saying: “She doesn’t belong in our party.”

“It’s unclear why Omar and Peterson have fallen out but his remarks may be an attempt to distance himself from the progressive left flank of his party as he braces for a brutal challenge from GOP candidate, former Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Michelle Fischbach,” The Post added. “Peterson’s criticism of Omar follows that from establishment Democrats who in conversations with The Post have privately dismissed the House’s famous ‘Squad’ of female lawmakers as ‘activists’ rather than legislators who can work across the aisle.”

Omar has a history of anti-Semitic remarks and a record of sympathy towards radical Islam most notably expressing her outrage when President Trump ordered hit that killed Iranian General Qassem Solemani.