Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday where she said that she’s only controversial because “people seem to want the controversy.”
Host Margaret Brennan began the interview by asking Omar if she believes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-12) is “being too hesitant” on pursuing impeachment.
“Well, what I’ve always said is that it wasn’t if we were going to impeach, it’s when we were going to impeach,” Omar said. “I think with Chairman Nadler, he understands that we have a Constitutional duty, and we must exercise that Constitutional duty.”
Brennan then asked Omar about a newly-released video from the Republican National Committee in which Omar compares migrant detention centers to slave camps in Africa during the slave trade.
Ilhan Omar compares migrant detention centers to slave camps in Africa during the slave tradehttps://t.co/V3d2xeAqxh pic.twitter.com/X2A4eZC3G4
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 15, 2019
“Did you mean when you were talking there to compare U.S. border agents to slave traders?” Brennan asked.
“So I’m only controversial because people seem to want the controversy,” Omar replied. In the RNC video, Omar was discussing her recent trip to Ghana, where she visited a 400-year-old dungeon where Africans were held captive and husbands and wives were separated.
She said she was talking about “how families were being torn apart, how children were being separated from their parents, how husband and wife would be forcefully separated” in African countries during the slave trade.
“And I said that kind of reminded me of what was happening at our border here,” she added, but claimed it wasn’t an attack on border agents.
The two then switched to the topic of the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld, at least temporarily, President Donald Trump’s asylum restrictions. The restrictions allow for rejecting asylum for those who haven’t asked for protection in countries they’ve passed through.
“I believe that decision is morally and legally wrong,” Omar said. “Seeking asylum is a legal right that people have, and we know that the Supreme Court has been wrong before.”
Towards the end of the interview, Brennan asked for Omar’s response to the son of a 9/11 victim who slammed Omar during a recent remembrance ceremony. Nicholas Haros Jr., wearing a “some people did something” t-shirt, targeted Omar during his September 11 speech at Ground Zero.
“‘Some people people did something,’ said a freshman congresswoman from Minnesota to support and justify the creation of CAIR” Haros remarked. “Today I am here to respond to you exactly who did what to whom.”
Brennan asked if Omar understood why some people found her comments offensive.
“So, 9/11 was an attack on all Americans, it was an attack on all of us,” she said. “I think it is really important for us to make sure that we are not forgetting the aftermath of what happened after 9/11. Many Americans found themselves now having their civil rights stripped from them. So what I was speaking to was the fact that as a Muslim, not only was I suffering as an American who was attacked on that day, but the next day I woke up as my fellow Americans were now treating me as suspect.”
The full interview can be watched below:
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of Battleground State News, The Ohio Star, and The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
