A recently unearthed video shows Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) mocking Americans for their anxiety over terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah.
The video was released Thursday by The Reagan Battalion and comes just days after the Daily Caller News Foundation obtained video of Omar describing 9/11 as an event in which “some people did something.”
As The Minnesota Sun reported, Omar faced widespread backlash for those comments, and is once again facing pressure from the GOP to be removed from her assignment on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
In the new video, Omar is discussing a course on terrorism that she took in college, and mocks the professor for being uncomfortable when discussing terrorist organizations. The clip is from a 2013 interview Omar did with the Somali-American show “BelAhdan,” and the full episode can be viewed here.
“The thing that was interesting in the class was that every time the professor said Al-Qaeda, he sort of—his shoulders went up, and you know—‘Al-Qaeda,’ you know, ‘Hezbollah,’” she says while mockingly shrugging her shoulders and laughing with the moderator.
A recently discovered video shows @IlhanMN mocking Americans for their anxiety about al-Qaeda, equating US armed forces to al-Qaeda and Hezbollah. pic.twitter.com/VBuKhAHjjE
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) April 11, 2019
“You’ll probably get to see him on CNN,” she continues. “But, you know, it is that. You don’t say America with an intensity. You don’t say England with an intensity. You know, you don’t say the Army with an intensity. But you say these names because you want that word to carry weight.”
Omar has yet to publicly comment on the video, but was invited on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Wednesday night where she addressed some of the criticism she’s receiving.
.@IlhanMN: "I will always listen and I will acknowledge your pain." Watch the full extended interview here: https://t.co/tGo2bE3mfE pic.twitter.com/9hF6CJJC68
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) April 11, 2019
“When you tell me that you are pained by something that I say, I will always listen and I will acknowledge your pain. It’s the same that I expect. So when you have people on Fox News that question whether I am actually American, or I put America first, I expect my colleagues to also say that’s not OK,” she said. “Or when people call me a terrorist, or when people say because I’m a Muslim, I’m an immigrant, I’m a refugee, that I can’t have any loyalty to our country. I took an oath to uphold the Constitution. I’m as American as everyone else is.”
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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].
Photo “Ilhan Omar” by Ilhan Omar. Background Photo “World Trade Center” by Michael Foran. CC BY 2.0.
