Fox News host Brian Kilmeade on Wednesday afternoon claimed he “didn’t intend” to question whether Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is an American when, earlier in the day, he pointedly said on-air: “You have to wonder if she’s an American first.”

The Fox & Friend host’s initial remark came in response to Omar’s comments about the importance of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in which she said: “CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.” Kilmeade and other conservative media personalities singled out the phrase “some people did something.”

“As a Muslim-American, you should be more outraged because they sullied your religion,” Kilmeade said of Omar during his morning broadcast. “In the name of religion they killed Americans and still do it on a daily basis.”

Fox News did not offer comment on Kilmeade’s remarks, but did point media to the host’s afternoon tweet, in which he explained: “I didn’t intend to question whether Rep. Omar is an American - I am questioning how any American, let alone a United States Congresswoman, could downplay the 9/11 attacks.”