On Sunday, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), responding to President Trump criticizing her at rallies over the weekend, stated that she loves America more than President Trump, saying, “It’s really also just astonishing to see the way in which he characterizes what love for our country is. I would certainly reckon not only Somalis, but myself, the governor of Michigan, our Speaker all love this country way more than the president, who is not only destroying the presidency but everything this country stands for.”
.@IlhanMN responds to the president's criticism: “I would certainly reckon…not only Somalis, but myself, the governor of Michigan, our speaker, all love this country way more than the president, who is not only destroying the presidency but everything this country stands for.” pic.twitter.com/kcaiClS4K1
— The Week with Joshua Johnson (@TheWeekMSNBC) October 19, 2020
Over the weekend, President Trump targeted Omar. Speaking in Muskegon, Michigan, on Saturday he stated: “But I’ll tell you what, what keeps us, what will bring us all together is success. It’s going to happen, too. It’s going to happen. Our congressman will be having lunch soon, someday with a radical Left, maybe AOC. … That might be a step too far, right? Omar, he’ll be having lunch with Ilhan Omar, who truly hates our country. But she’s one of the reasons we’re going to win the great state of (Minnesota.) We’re going to win. We’re going to win because of Ilhan, right? We’re going to win Minnesota because of her.”
He continued, “They want to overwhelm Michigan with poorly vetted migrants from jihadist regions. Well, Omar wants that to happen. AOC wants that to happen. Ilhan Omar, she’s not happy with our country. She’s not happy with our country. She wants to tell us how to run our country.”
On Friday, speaking in Ocala, Florida, Trump said, “She hates our country. She comes from a place that doesn’t even have a government and then she comes here, she tells us how to run our country, and she hates our country. If you look at the House with Pelosi, it’s like they hate Israel, and they believe in Omar who came in here and married her brother or something, and came in illegally.”
On Saturday, Omar tweeted of Trump, “He is unraveling. What you are witnessing is the weakest expression of strength. It’s similar to the final acts of fallen dictators. We will outlast him because our (sic) stronger.”
He is unraveling. What you are witnessing is the weakest expression of strength.
It’s similar to the final acts of fallen dictators. We will outlast him because our stronger 💪🏽
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) October 18, 2020
After a New York Times 2019 article stated, “In Omar’s version, America wasn’t the bighearted country that saved her from a brutal war and a bleak refugee camp. It wasn’t a meritocracy that helped her attend college or vaulted her into Congress. Instead, it was the country that had failed to live up to its founding ideals, a place that had disappointed her and so many immigrants, refugees and minorities like her,” Fox News’ Tucker Carlson commented:
Virtually every public statement she makes accuses Americans of bigotry and racism. This is an immoral country, she says. She has undisguised contempt for the United States and for its people. That should worry you, and not just because Omar is now a sitting member of Congress. Ilhan Omar is living proof that the way we practice immigration has become dangerous to this country. A system designed to strengthen America is instead undermining it. … No country can import large numbers of people who hate it and expect to survive.
Omar responded by calling Carlson a “racist fool,” as she tweeted, “Not gonna lie, it’s kinda fun watching a racist fool like this weeping about my presence in Congress.”