Progressives are grasping at straws about Ilhan Omar’s patriotism. They can’t excuse her incendiary comments about Israel and “some people who did something” on 9/11. So now they’re using the length of her citizenship as proof of . . . well, something. Especially when they compare her to Melania Trump.

It started with CNN’s Jake Tapper, who often handles controversy even-handedly. However, in the dust-up between The Squad and Donald Trump — eh, not so much.

Tapper said this in his opening commentary on Monday:

“As well as Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) who came to the U.S. as a child, a refugee from Somalia and has been a U.S. Citizen since a teenager, longer than the first lady.”

And the point is. . .?

So now media are desperately trying to rehabilitate the most anti-American member of the House by pointing out that Ilhan Omar’s length of citizenship surpasses that of Melania Trump.

It’s true that Omar became a US citizen in 2000, before the First Lady did. What’s more, she was younger — only 17. Melania Trump, on the other hand, obtained citizenship in 2006 at the age of 36, one year after she married Donald Trump.

Since when do we measure patriotism of naturalized citizens by how long they’ve had their citizenship? And how old they were when they obtained it?

When it serves to excuse bad conduct, apparently.

My grandmother, a German from Eastern Europe, arrived in the US around 1911. She didn’t become a citizen until 1941 — interestingly less than one month before Germany declared war on the US. Why did she wait so long? Who knows? My grandparents were always poor, and never owned a car, so maybe those contributed to the delay. I have no idea.

Personal collection.

But that doesn’t mean she loved her adopted nation any less. Likewise, just because Melania Trump hasn’t been a citizen as long as Ilhan Omar doesn’t mean she loves America less, either. In fact, I believe she loves her adopted land more than Omar. A lot more, in fact.

And yet the media are criticizing Mrs. Trump for not having “commented on her husband’s racist tweets.” Meanwhile they scramble to excuse Omar’s outrageous comments.

But this is where we are. Progressives recently have judged the measure of Americans by whether or not they are descendants of slave-owners. Now they use length of citizenship to excuse egregious comments by someone they support. Such is the depth of their hatred for President Trump.

Featured image: The White House/flickr/cropped/public domain.