Rep. Summer Lee tried to attack a fellow Democrat over signing an artillery shell but blamed the wrong man, and when Rep. Ilhan Omar rushed to her defense, her own voting record became the punchline.
The exchange unfolded on X over two days last week, beginning July 21, 2026, when Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) posted a broadside against the Democratic Socialists of America. Gottheimer called DSA members "not Democrats" but "socialists, who want to hijack the Democratic Party," adding that "there's no room for anti-American bomb-throwers who oppose our ideas, values, & leaders." His post cheered progressive pundit Van Jones, who had recently warned about the socialist left's growing influence inside the party.
Lee, a Pennsylvania Democrat and self-identified "Squad" member, fired back with a post aimed squarely at Gottheimer. She had one problem: she got the wrong guy.
"What about Dems who sign bombs and vote to drop them?" Lee wrote on X. The post appeared to reference an incident from September 2024, when Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro autographed an artillery shell meant for Ukraine during a visit to Scranton by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Shapiro, not Gottheimer, signed that shell. Both men are Jewish Democrats named Josh, and Lee apparently confused the two.
Gottheimer did not let it slide:
"You know that's the other Jewish guy named Josh, right?"
The 51-year-old New Jersey congressman, who has served in the House since 2017, had just handed Lee a public correction that doubled as an uncomfortable question about why she mixed up two Jewish colleagues. Lee did not publicly acknowledge the error or correct her post, based on the available exchange.
Rather than let the moment pass, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) waded into the thread later on July 21. She directed a reply at Gottheimer:
"He signed the bombs you voted to be dropped. Hope this helps!"
Omar's post earned a community note on X, the platform's crowd-sourced fact-check feature, which, as the New York Post reported, took her to task for pivoting the conversation to Israel when the underlying discussion involved Ukraine aid and Shapiro's visit to Scranton. The note underscored that Omar had steered the exchange off its original subject.
But the real problem for Omar arrived the next morning. On July 22, Gottheimer posted a screenshot of the congressional voting record and addressed Omar directly:
"Ilhan, you know who else voted for it? You."
The screenshot confirmed that Omar herself had voted to approve $60.8 billion in aid for Ukraine in April 2024, the very funding pipeline she appeared to criticize. Gottheimer's reply laid bare a straightforward contradiction: Omar attacked him for supporting weapons shipments that she had also voted to fund.
The social media exchange landed against a charged backdrop. Just days before, 103 House Democrats voted in favor of an amendment introduced by libertarian-leaning Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to the annual defense spending bill. That amendment would have stripped Israel of $3.3 billion in U.S. aid. The vote reflected growing fractures inside the Democratic caucus over Middle East policy, fractures that members like Lee and Omar have helped widen.
Gottheimer's original post calling out DSA influence was itself a response to those fault lines. He framed the internal fight as one between mainstream Democrats and a socialist faction working to pull the party away from its traditional alliances and values. Van Jones's public warning about the far left's rise gave Gottheimer a high-profile progressive voice to cite in making that case.
Lee and Omar, by jumping into the thread, handed Gottheimer exactly the foils he needed. Lee's factual error, confusing her own state's governor with a congressman from New Jersey, undermined whatever policy point she intended to make. And Omar's attempt at a sharp retort collapsed the moment her own vote surfaced.
Neither Lee nor Omar appears to have corrected the record. Lee did not acknowledge that she had blamed the wrong person. Omar did not address the contradiction between her vote for $60.8 billion in Ukraine aid and her attack on Gottheimer for supporting the same policy. The posts remained live on X.
For a caucus that lectures the country about misinformation and accountability, the silence is telling. Lee made a verifiable factual error, one that confused two Jewish members of her own party, and let it stand. Omar tried to score a point and was immediately shown to be on the same side of the vote she was attacking. Neither offered a word of correction.
This is the Squad's recurring pattern: big rhetoric, thin homework, and no cleanup when the facts don't cooperate. Gottheimer didn't need a press conference or a cable-news hit to make the point. He just posted the record.
When your opponents keep defeating themselves, sometimes the strongest move is a screenshot and a short sentence.
