On Thursday, speaking on MSNBC, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) blamed President Trump for her father’s death, saying her father died from COVID-19 due to the “dangerous criminal neglect by Trump and his administration,” and stating, “We have to investigate and prosecute these people who are responsible for these reckless deaths.”
Omar’s father, Nur Omar Mohamed, 67, died in June. Omar told MSNBC that the Trump administration had exhibited “dangerous criminal neglect” and referenced a memo by Democratic House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn claiming he had found evidence of “political interference” by the Trump administration into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Omar said, “I lost my father on June 16. I remember my dad was in Kenya, he came back into the U.S. when Covid hit because he thought he was going to be safer here. My father and over 300,000 people have lost their lives to Covid because of dangerous criminal neglect by Trump and his administration, and I agree with Clyburn that it is not enough for us just to issue subpoenas, we have to investigate and prosecute these people who are responsible for these reckless deaths.”
“My father should be here today, so many of our family members should be here today and they’re not here with us because we had leaders who didn’t care about their lives,” she said, continuing:
Our president today has not shown an ounce of compassion to the people who have passed away. He still has not acknowledged the devastating loss so many of us are feeling. My father survived so many things and for him to lose his life to Covid is devastating and right before you came on the reporter was sharing a story and that story is a story that my siblings and I share over and over and over again. It does not make sense that this is a reality in this country. This could have been avoided; this can be avoided, there are people who are responsible, and we cannot forget that when the next administration is sworn in and they are in charge of what happens next.
“My father and over 300,000 people have lost their lives because of dangerous criminal neglect by Trump and his Administration.
It is not enough to just issue subpoenas. We have to investigate and prosecute the people responsible.” – @IlhanMN pic.twitter.com/n138b6nxEw
— Jeremy Slevin (@jeremyslevin) December 17, 2020
Clyburn referred to a July email from then-Health and Human Services scientific advisor Paul Alexander in which he wrote, according to Fox News:
So the bottom line is if it is more infectiouness [sic] now, the issue is who cares? If it is causing more cases in young, my word is who cares…as long as we make sensible decisions, and protect the elderely [sic] and nursing homes, we must go on with life….who cares if we test more and get more positive tests. There is no other way, we need to establish herd, and it only comes about allowing the non-high risk groups expose themselves to the virus. PERIOD. Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk….so we use them to develop herd…we want them infected.
Despite claims by media experts that it could not be done before the end of the year, the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed has resulted in multiple vaccines for the virus.
Related: Trump Tweets That Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine Has Been ‘Overwhelmingly Approved’