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WATCH: Ilhan Omar’s Strange Answer When Asked If She Married Brother

Omar was asked if there was any “kernel of truth” to the claims.

Leif Le Mahieu
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3 min

Embattled Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) did not give a straight answer when asked if there was any “kernel of truth” to the allegations that she once married her brother.

Omar gave the strange response during a softball interview with MS Now commentator Chris Hayes about the Justice Department’s investigation into the congresswoman over suspected immigration fraud. The Minnesota Democrat has long faced allegations that her ex-husband Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, is her biological brother.

In the interview on Wednesday, Hayes asked Omar whether she was related to her ex-husband at all and if there was any “kernel of truth” to the claims. 

“Not to my knowledge,” Omar responded. Hayes did not ask any follow up questions to that response. 

When first asked by Hayes about the accusations that she married her brother, Omar blamed the allegations on “Right-wing conspiracy theorists.”

“It started with the Somali blog that I don’t know if it still exists, but somebody put in there that, you know, that he had to have been my brother or something to that effect,” she said. “And Right-wing conspiracy theorists in Minneapolis got a hold of it.”

Omar married Elmi in 2009, separated from him in 2011, and divorced him in 2017. She has previously called the allegations that Elmi is her brother “absurd and offensive.” Despite the strong denials, her immigration and marriage history continues to be clouded. 

President Donald Trump was asked Thursday night about Omar’s answer to the question about her marriage to Elmi.  

“That’s not a good answer,” Trump said. “That’s an answer that a lot of us assumed.” 

Hayes also asked Omar about why her financial state after her current husband’s net worth was listed as $30 million before that number was retracted and claimed to be an accounting error. 

“I mean, it’s, you know, working class I guess … paycheck to paycheck still. You know, we’ve got four kids. And you know, we live, I think, like a basic life. I have a Toyota Camry that’s from 2016,” she said. “I rent my D.C. place and my Minneapolis place.”

Court filings released Wednesday reveal that prosecutors are still looking to complete the search warrant authorized for Omar’s Washington, D.C., residence. Federal investigators reportedly obtained DNA evidence in an attempt to prove accusations that Omar married her brother.

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