Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) accused Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) of having “a base that feeds off” of xenophobia and racism.
The two lawmakers have stark differences in politics in a House with a slim Republican majority, and Gill brought attention to Omar’s workshops for Somali immigrants on navigating Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“We should have never let Ilhan Omar into our country,” Gill wrote on X last month under a video of one such workshop.
Omar appeared on CNN’s The Situation Room Monday to respond to Gill’s further comments that she should be arrested and deported. The Michigan representative stood by her actions, asserting that everyone has constitutional rights and that “it is really important for people to know those rights.”
“These are people who have really stopped caring about our institutions, really stopped caring about our Constitution,” Omar said when asked about Gill. “I know that it is red meat for his base that are xenophobic and racist to say to them that I am going to find a way to arrest and deport a member of Congress who he thinks is doing something wrong when I am doing the right thing in trying to make sure everybody that is within my constituency has the resources and the information that they need.”
“Yes, of course. But just to follow up very quickly, just to be clear, you’re not calling all of his base xenophobic and racist, right,” anchor Pamela Brown asked.
“Well, I mean, he is feeding to something. He has a petition out. He’s getting donations. That’s what this is all about. He knows he can’t deport me. There is no grounds for my arrest,” Omar said. “So this information is only being put out there by him for a reason, and that reason is because he has a base that feeds off of that.”
Omar is a Somali refugee who was granted naturalization in 2000 and took an oath to become a U.S. citizen.
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The Washington Examiner reached out to Gill’s office for comment.
Gill is a freshman congressman who is married to filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza’s daughter. He is a former journalist and founder of the DC Enquirer.