EXCLUSIVE — ‘I have a legal right’: Omar on why she won't ‘tap out’ amid Trump probe

[0:00] We are back with Congresswoman Ilhan Omar in her first interview since the raid on her home by Donald Trump's Department of Homeland Security last week. [0:07] We talked about what she sees as their real aim in taking this extraordinary action against her again in that window that there's not supposed to be any DOJ action, especially now so close to a crucial election and the violent, vicious accusations that have been lodged at her by the sitting president. [0:23] I'm trying to figure out the way to do this that doesn't sound like I'm insane. And I'm saying this up front because the president of the United States is one of the biggest bullhorns, right? [0:36] And every time he talks about you, he will casually say something wild about you. Like, he will tweet, Ilhan Omar, she married her brother, blah, blah, blah. [0:46] You see that, you think to yourself, boy, that sounds odd. It seems unlikely that she married her brother. [0:51] There are right wing people who believe that this man was your brother. You have called it a disgusting lie. [0:58] Well, you who who was this man that was your husband? When did they start saying that he was your brother? Why? [1:04] 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. [1:17] And right wing conspiracy theorists in Minneapolis got a hold of it. [1:23] And they just kind of went and like found random people who were like, she introduced us, you know, she introduced him to us and said he was her brother, which is, you know, insane. [1:37] I mean, I don't I don't know those people that they talk about. [1:40] He was not you were not related to him at all. [1:42] Not that there's not like there's not some weird kernel of truth that's through some game. [1:46] Not to my knowledge, that was the big gotcha. [1:49] Right. In terms of what you're talking about, promising like we're going to nail her on the marriage. [1:53] Yeah, that was the source of the immigration fraud that no longer seems to be the issue that they are putatively investigating. [2:00] Right. They've now moved on to whatever your representations your father made in his naturalization process about you. [2:08] Yeah. Is that your understanding? [2:11] But it's also very convenient because my dad is no longer alive. [2:14] Right. [2:15] Right. So it's it's another thing they can drag on forever. [2:21] Right. Because there's no because the person who signed the paperwork and did it all is no no longer here to answer the charges. [2:28] Right. Even though they have the papers that he signed. [2:31] Right. And like the people who knocked on my door searching for papers literally have his papers. [2:40] They they are the ones who processed us to come to the United States. [2:43] Right. And they have all of that. [2:45] Right. Right. [2:45] Let me ask about the second part of the world that the president has conjured about you, which is which is your fabulous wealth. [2:53] He has said that, like, I mean, again, he just you can never track what the president's actually saying because he says a lot of things that you have all this money, that you drive a lot of cars, houses. [3:03] They cited a financial disclosure for for Congress that initially said that your husband's firm was worth 30 million dollars. [3:13] That was before an accountant put in the liabilities of that firm, which then brought 30 million down to, like, essentially net zero. [3:21] Twenty thousand dollars, which did make me worry a little about your husband's business, to be honest. [3:26] He's not in them anymore. [3:27] I was like, well, that seems like a big difference between 30 million dollars and twenty thousand dollars. [3:32] There was a congressional oversight body that voted that there was no wrongdoing. [3:37] There's no evidence of wrongdoing. [3:39] What is your financial situation? [3:41] I mean, it's, you know, working, working class, I guess, like paycheck to paycheck still. [3:46] You know, we've got four kids and, you know, we we live, I think, like a basic life. [3:53] I have a Toyota Camry that's from 2016's early car. [3:59] I rent my D.C. place and my Minneapolis place. [4:03] And so, I mean, I don't know if that sounds like, you know, not majority of Congress, but there are some of us that are that don't come from wealth and don't have wealth. [4:13] Is that a big divide in Congress? [4:15] It is. [4:15] Yeah, because you have, like, the millionaires and then you have those of us, you know, when we first went to Congress, had to borrow money to find a place. [4:25] It's expensive, actually, to live in two places. [4:27] Yeah. [4:30] How do you feel about being in that apartment and the place that you live since the search? [4:38] Does it, I don't know, is there like a lasting after effect of something like that? [4:44] Yeah, I mean, obviously, I can't continue to live there, so I have to figure out where to move to because. [4:52] Why not? [4:52] Because our address has been public and with the death threats that I deal with, it's not, it's no longer going to be feasible to be in that house and have my kids, like, visiting off and on and having people track them. [5:08] I know that you, there's a dynamic in which it's very clear that a bunch of effort has been made by the president, Stephen Miller on down, to put a tremendous amount of pressure on you and to intimidate you. [5:24] And having interviewed you many times and knowing you a little bit now, a desire on your part to not let the bastard see you sweat. [5:34] Is that fair? [5:35] I think that's in my DNA. [5:37] It is very much, right? [5:38] Which is like, I am not going to let them see me break because I know they want that. [5:44] At the same time, every time I see something like this, having now covered you for many years, interviewing you first when you were a state legislator, I think to myself, that is a lot of pressure for one person. [6:01] Like, does it feel that way? [6:05] Yeah, I mean, in my faith teachings, you know, we believe that God doesn't give you more than you can handle. [6:11] He doesn't burden us with more than we can handle. [6:15] And I think, you know, I'm designed uniquely by God to withstand all of this. [6:22] And I think what the president and, you know, these crazy people who have been after me and my family and have been after my life because, you know, [6:38] the enormous level of death threats that I deal with and my family in general deals with is that, you know, I am a person of enormous faith. [6:53] And I know that, you know, if I continue to live my truth, if I continue to fight for the right things, if I continue to stand up to bullies and people who are carrying out ungodly corruption, I'm going to be okay. [7:18] Do you ever want to just tap out? [7:19] And I think, I think that is, now you've got the real question. [7:24] I think that is ultimately what they want. [7:28] What, well, you know, I mean, obviously they like to see me locked up, deported and all of those things. [7:32] But I think they want worse than that, unfortunately. [7:34] Yeah, but I think, like, the bigger satisfaction for them would be for me to be like, listen, like, I'm tired of all of you and I'm going to leave because they've always believed that someone of my background, [7:52] you know, of my faith shouldn't be in Congress, shouldn't have a position where they are influencing U.S. law. [8:01] And I think that's, you know, that's, that's ultimately the thing that they, that they want. [8:07] But in, in a country, I know the president keeps saying, and she talks about the Constitution, in a country governed by our Constitution, I have a legal right to be a member of Congress. [8:18] And I am honored that the people who helped welcome my family and helped raise me also think so. [8:25] He said all sorts of things about you. [8:28] The other day he said, I forget what he said, but that, but it's DOJ. [8:33] I don't have anything to do with it. [8:35] Do you think it's true he doesn't have anything to do with it? [8:37] Oh, absolutely not. [8:38] I mean, he's got everything to do with it. [8:42] You know, this, this goes back to 2019. [8:45] When he was screaming about the fact that, you know, I need to be sent back, I need to be deported, which then he ordered his Department of Homeland Security to investigate me. [9:01] And in that investigation, they produced a one page memo saying, you know, her citizenship is solid. [9:11] There's nothing for us to look at. [9:13] And at that time, they even looked at my father because he was still alive. [9:18] Live, right. [9:18] And so for them to, you know, say that, like, my status as a citizen in this country was solid and then to have that same department now saying there's something wrong tells you how political this whole investigation is. [9:38] Did you, when I read that Washington Post piece, I thought, did you catch wind of that happening back in 2019? [9:44] Did you know that was happening? [9:45] No. [9:46] So did you learn? [9:46] I only saw it in the Washington Post reporting a couple of days ago. [9:50] So that's when you learned that they had done this behind the scenes. [9:53] Yes. [9:53] And basically said, no, there's nothing here. [9:56] Yes. [9:57] I did. [9:58] I did hear that they opened, that there was an opening of my immigration file. [10:04] But I didn't know to the extent of what the opening of my investigation meant and who opened it. [10:12] The woman who is overseas, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C., which is the office that went to the judge to get the warrant, even though it was HSI agents and not the FBI, is Janine Pirro. [10:25] Right. [10:26] She did a very long monologue back in 2019 in which she heaped a lot of criticism and scorn at you. [10:32] One of the things she said at the time was that. [10:36] Because I wear a hijab that I cannot be a member of Congress and swear to the Constitution. [10:41] That you're that wearing a hijab was inherently incompatible, essentially, with the U.S. Constitution. [10:47] And that I couldn't take an oath. [10:51] What does it say to you that she is the woman who is now like receiving a criminal investigation? [10:57] Again, how more obvious could these people be? [11:01] You know, it's like there there is you could at least have the appearance of not having this be fictitious, not having this be directed by the president and everybody in his administration who hates me. [11:17] But they've chosen to blatantly have every character that has been involved be someone who has expressed explicitly that they don't want me to be in the United States and they don't want to be they don't want me to be in Congress. [11:38] I mean, from Mullen to J.D. Vance to the president to, you know, the district attorney. [11:44] In fact, Stephen Miller's wife, when you were when you were searched, posted promises made promises kept and then deleted it. [11:51] Yeah. [11:52] What do you think she meant? [11:54] Well, she meant exactly what she meant, that they did make this promise to get me and that they are keeping that promise to get me. [12:03] Former President Barack Obama had a very lengthy post in which he strongly criticized the both the search that was executed on your search warrant executed on you and the attempts to possibly denaturalize or deport you. [12:20] What did it mean? [12:23] He doesn't really weigh in on everything. [12:24] So he sort of preserves this weight when he weighs in on something and said something. [12:30] He had a lot to say. [12:31] What did you make of his statement? [12:32] I mean, I think a lot of the conspiracy world that I find myself in is the conspiracy world that was created around him. [12:50] And so while some people might feel reserved in some of the information that they hear from these people, [12:58] I think he is, you know, acutely capable of seeing what this is, what the purpose of what they are doing is, [13:10] and that no matter how much you want to fight and debunk, you know, there's never going to be any evidence, [13:20] any clearing of your name because they are going to continue to, you know, [13:27] they're going to continue to believe these things because it has now become a desperate truth to them that they have to hold on to. [13:35] Have you felt like the, I mean, many members of the Democratic caucus have spoken up and talked about how outraged, [13:44] and they've called for oversight hearings when and if Democrats get the gavel. [13:46] Do you feel like, do you feel like your colleagues have gotten your back? [13:50] I do. [13:51] I do, privately and publicly. [13:54] People have been incredibly kind, whether they're in elected office in Congress or elected around the country. [14:03] I feel covered. [14:06] Have any Republicans reached out to be like, this sucks? [14:09] No. [14:10] Not a single one? [14:10] No. [14:13] Nowhere? [14:13] Any of them? [14:14] Not your Minnesota delegation members? [14:19] No. [14:19] No, no, no, I mean, they're, like, one of them is actually on TV every day saying, when are we arresting her? [14:25] So, you know, Emma would like to distract from the fact that he is, like, one of the worst whips in the history of America [14:34] and that, you know, his, like, best friend was, you know, a child sex trafficker who's now serving 26 years. [14:43] So, you know, he doesn't want people to talk about his shitty record. [14:47] He would like people to be focused on me. [14:49] Are you confident that you're going to come out on the other side of this with your freedom intact? [15:00] I'm confident in my truth. [15:02] I'm confident in the fact that I didn't do anything wrong. [15:04] I'm confident in the fact that, you know, if there were real people who were not politically motivated, like there were real people in 2019, [15:15] and there were real people in 2024, when they looked at my husband and my finances, that, yeah, there would be no indictment. [15:27] There would be, you know, no continuation of this. [15:32] And, yes, there would never have been, as everyone has said, even people who are currently at DOJ, that there was no reason to execute this search warrant, [15:42] because in the search warrant it also said they had a window of 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. [15:48] So to come at 6 tells you that, you know, and then they tipped off Fox News, right? [15:54] They were the first on site, and they're trolls. [15:58] And so, you know, everybody can see this for what it is. [16:03] And, you know, I do feel confident that when it's all said and done, that I'm going to be just fine. 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