Speaking with The Huffington Post, Rep. Ilhan Omar, who has made numerous anti-Semtic and anti-America remarks, bragged that she is President Trump’s “biggest nemesis.”
Omar boasted, “This is a president who has come to power because he was very much willing to vilify and demonize immigrants and refugees. He so proudly said we should halt Muslims from entering our country. He clearly has a disdain for black women who see themselves as equal to him. And so, for many people, it’s not a surprise that he finds his biggest nemesis in me. Clearly, I am a nightmare ― because he can’t stop really thinking about ways that he can continue to use my identity to marginalize our communities.”
She added, “As someone who certainly has survived far worse people than him, I’m going to be alright … I always find conflicts to be the best sources for organizing.”
Omar told The Huffington Post that the constituents in her community who voted for her have not changed their opinion of her despite the remarks she has made, crowing, “People who were actually willing to cast their ballot for me have not ever called or asked, ‘Why can’t you say things differently?’”
Omar positioned herself as a champion of the oppressed: “There are people who really have never felt completely visible in a system that wasn’t designed for them. And people who have always felt that the American dream was dying away. To now see [that] a refugee who has only been in this country two decades, who carries almost every marginalized identity that you could carry, has risen and ascended to one of the most powerful positions that you could be in our country? That is hope.”
Speaking to a group of women in her district, she posited that people who have “taken on AIPAC” “have not returned,” blustering, “There are people who are invested in instilling fear in us. There are people who send me books of members of Congress who have taken on AIPAC and others and who have not returned. I think it is for them in their mind to be a cautionary tale. But for me, it’s a motivation. It’s a motivation to say that somebody has to buck the system.”
She stated, “Yesterday, you were saying that Muslim men don’t allow women to speak, and Muslim women are oppressed for being covered, so you want to liberate them. Today you’re angry because there is one of them that is too liberated. These people really are not sincere in their criticism. All they really, truly want is for us to go away.”
Omar concluded to The Huffington Post, “There are these people, these forces who are very much interested in making sure that this immigrant, this refugee, this woman of color, this Muslim ― who naively thinks that she must have some sort of equal status to them ― must be put in her place. The joke is on them. Because that is never going to happen.”
