Trump, V.P. Pence and Rep. Omar observe very different Mondays

Everyone can agree that October 12, 2020 was a Monday but that’s about it.

Mike Pence started his week by tweeting the words “Happy Columbus Day!” with an American flag as a backdrop, celebrating the explorer who opened the Americas to Europe.

Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar sent her wishes to the people who were already here when Columbus arrived by telling Americans it was also Indigenous People’s Day, which she wants to see formally recognized on a federal level.

President Trump, before heading to Florida for his first campaign rally since announcing he’d both contracted and beaten COVID-19, tweeted “Happy National Farmers Day," which Pence re-tweeted.

Pence’s tweet garnered positive and negative as Christopher Columbus’s Oct. 12, 1492 voyage across the Atlantic Ocean laid the groundwork for what is now the United States of America. That process included colonization resulting in the death and displacement of indigenous peoples over the course of several centuries.

Omar, a Somali native, was greeted with support and anger over her tweet, which called for an end to “the glorification of a murderous slave owner” and a call to “make Indigenous Peoples' Day a federal holiday.”

Omar also voiced her objection to modern-day happenings in Washington D.C. Monday, where the Senate Judiciary Committee vetted President Trump’s Supreme Court justice nominee, Amy Coney Barrett.

There’s been debate as to whether Barrett’s view on abortion rights, which could be influenced by her Catholic faith, might threaten the court’s 1973 Roe versus Wade decision making abortion legal. Conservatives argue Barrett’s religion should not be made an issue in her confirmation hearing.

“Let’s be clear about this: if a Muslim woman was nominated to SCOTUS you would see Republicans lose their mind about her religious background,” wrote Omar, who is a Muslim.

“Miss me with the pearl-clutching and all this righteous talk about religious freedom,” she concluded.

President Trump had crops -- and rural voters -- on his mind Monday.

“Happy National Farmers Day!” he tweeted

The president, whose doctor cleared him to hit the campaign trail over the weekend, also tweeted he was headed to Florida for a campaign rally where he promised big crowds -- just one week after being released from the hospital for treatment of COVID-19.

While Columbus is often associated with the Florida area, he only explored parts of the Caribbean including the Bahamas, Cuba, and Jamaica, as well as parts of Central America during his series of journeys to the Americas, according to Encyclopedia Brittanica.

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