FULL INTERVIEW: Rep. Ilhan Omar sits down with Chris Hayes after raid on her house

[0:00] Well, I mean, you don't show up to somebody's house that early in the morning unless you're [0:08] trying to freak them out. And, you know, it obviously did freak all of us out. I only had [0:15] two and a half hours of sleep when they came, you know, pounding on the doors. [0:21] Will you just tell me a little bit about what that moment was like? What time in the morning [0:24] was it? It's 6 a.m. I'd been traveling, so I got in like 1.30 to I think I went to bed [0:33] like 3, 3.30. And so it was, you know, trying to figure out like if you're dreaming this [0:40] weird thing that's happening, but they basically surrounded the house. They were [0:44] pounding on the back door and the front door. And, you know, we were screaming. We're [0:50] coming down. We, our bedrooms upstairs, trying to put on clothes and, you know, [0:55] trying to run down before they broke the door. [1:00] When they're pounding, are they saying federal agents, Homeland Security, open the [1:05] door? Are they announcing who they are? [1:07] They were shouting something, but it was unclear to us when we were upstairs. [1:14] Did you think it was intruders? Did you, what did you think when you heard the [1:18] pounding on the door and the voices outside? [1:19] I thought something was on fire. I thought something was happening to the [1:23] neighbors. Like it sounded like an urgent evacuation sort of situation. Again, like [1:31] I said, I only had, you know, maybe two, two and a half hours to sleep. And so it [1:36] took us a while to figure out what was actually happening, even after we opened [1:40] the door. [1:41] It's you and your husband and your son was there? [1:44] My son was there. [1:45] How old is your son? [1:46] 20. [1:47] And your daughter was not there? [1:48] No. [1:49] Um, you get downstairs, you open the door. What do you see in front of you? [1:55] Well, my husband opened the door. Um, so he got to interact with them before I came back [2:01] down to, uh, before I came down to, um, to see them. And I could see that they're fast [2:08] said HSI, which I'm familiar with. Um, so I figured that they were there for a purpose. And so I did [2:15] ask if they had a search warrant. Um, and they provided me the search warrant. Um, what is, [2:22] when you see HSI, is there like a penny drop moment for you that like, oh, this is what this [2:31] is? [2:32] No, um, I, you know, again, even my eyes couldn't adjust to the warrant and the HSI, um, because [2:40] that's immigration, that's trafficking, um, that's, you know, uh, drugs. Um, the fact that they were [2:51] at my house that early in the morning, you know, was so, so bizarre. So I, you know, I was like, [2:57] why, why are you here? [2:58] They, they furnish you the warrant. Um, there was a, there's a bunch of provisions that they [3:06] had to attest to the magistrate judge. And I've gotten this from a letter that your lawyers [3:10] wrote to the Department of Justice, because as a member of Congress, you have constitutional [3:14] privileges, speech in the debate, immunity, and there's been a lot of litigation back [3:19] and forth. And one of the things the magistrate judge, I believe, told them to comply with [3:24] the constitution and that immunity was to inform you about that immunity. Yeah. Did they do [3:31] that? They brought, um, a sheet, uh, two, it was, um, two papers, uh, that were attached [3:38] together, um, that essentially said they wanted me to sign a waiver, um, to the debate. Um, um, [3:50] it, that was obnoxious. I, I just, I couldn't understand why they would think that I would sign [3:55] such a thing. You did not sign it. No. How many people were there? Um, I mean, there were a few [4:02] that were in and then out and then a few more in, a few more out. Um, I would say somewhere between [4:09] 15 to 25 agents. And were they, how were they in their interactions with you? I think they mostly [4:18] conducted themselves in a decent way. So then they start searching the house. Right. Um, what, [4:25] where did they go and what did they take? They went room by room, um, and they took 17 items. Um, [4:36] yeah. Those include a number of phones, right? Including your personal phone. Yeah. They took my [4:43] phone, um, an old phone. I believe, uh, that was, um, a travel phone of mine. Um, my youngest daughter's [4:56] first phone, um, that was also old sitting in her room. Um, and then a phone that I'd just gotten [5:03] replaced, um, that, uh, was still in my position. They also took, my understanding is like a few [5:10] keepsakes, like something that your husband got for graduation from his grandfather. Is that right? [5:15] From his, um, uh, uncle, um, who, uh, he gave him this, uh, camera, um, I think it's from the 60s. [5:24] Uh, and he was in the Navy, um, and it had, um, he'd used it to, to document his life, uh, while he was [5:33] stationed abroad. They took that. They took that. They took a Somali phrase book for children your [5:39] husband is using to learn. Yeah. Somebody gifted my husband, um, uh, a book that helps people learn [5:46] Somali. How is this Somali? Uh, it's getting better day by day. Yeah. What? I think he knows [5:53] the basics. I don't think we could say anything mean while he's around. Yeah. Um, how long? And [5:59] then they took his notebook. They took his notebook. His notebooks. How long did the whole thing take? [6:04] Um, I want to say, I mean, it was hours, four to five hours. Wow. Yeah. One of my, which is why I was [6:15] surprised, um, when they handed me the receipt for the items that they'd taken, um, to do that long [6:22] of a search and to walk away with 17 items, um, of like 10 that were just notebooks and like old phones [6:32] was such a bizarre, bizarre thing. Um, one of the other stipulations I believe in the magistrate judge [6:41] issuing this warrant was that they were going to notify the house general counsel, which I think [6:47] your lawyers say they did not do. Yes. And that you would be told, you could talk to an attorney [6:53] at the initiation of the search. Were you allowed to talk to your attorney at the initiation of the [6:57] search? I don't think I was able to call my attorney until about an hour into the search. [7:03] So you're just there watching them search helplessly. Well, yeah. I sat on the couch [7:09] staring at the warrant and trying to make sure that they were staying within the bounds of what [7:15] the warrant allowed them to do. What did you, when you talked to your lawyers, what was your, [7:23] was there any moment at which you sort of had any understanding of what exactly was happening to you? [7:28] Um, no, I, I don't think anybody still has an understanding of what is happening. [7:35] What do you mean by that? I mean, it, it doesn't make any sense that they would raid a house to [7:42] take my phone because essentially that's kind of the, the warrant was for like electronics. Um, [7:49] and so to come that early, um, to take my phone just sounded obnoxious. It still sounds obnoxious. [7:59] There was reporting they took DNA. No, they did not. No. Do you know that for a fact that they didn't [8:06] take like a toothbrush or a comb or something like that? None of that was listed. Okay. In the, [8:11] because they have to give you a receipt of the items that are seized. Um, so I would have seen [8:16] if they did take anything that had, uh, contained DNA. And they didn't like make a request for you [8:22] of like a swab or anything like that? No. When they left, what did you do? I just went back around the [8:33] house just trying to make sure everything was put back. Um, and they, they did a really good job in [8:38] putting everything, um, back in, in its place. They actually even folded some of my clothing that [8:44] were not folded. So it was, it was, it's a, it was a very bizarre, um, intrusive, but polite. Um, [8:52] and yeah, they, they left the house, I think, um, you know, in good shape, you know, there's CBS has [8:57] been reporting that these officers from HSI, the same folks that went, uh, you know, searched your [9:05] house have been showing up the doors of other people, immigrants and asking them questions about [9:10] whether to register to vote, um, as you know, part of the undertaking by the Trump administration, [9:17] I think clearly to intimidate people. Is that your understanding of what this was about? [9:24] Yeah. I mean, I, I believe, you know, they've made, um, this, you know, you and I have talked [9:30] about this. They've, um, done this sort of, uh, full press, um, where they kept alluding to the fact [9:40] that something was going to happen to me. Uh, and I think a lot of their right wing influencers who [9:49] seem to have direct, um, connection to not just the president, but his orbit, um, I think they were [10:00] like starting to lose faith that these were empty promises and they had to do something, [10:04] I believe to say, Hey, look, we raided her house. Um, you know, now you can feel comfortable that we [10:11] are doing something. And I think a lot of, you know, whether it's Metro search, whether it is the [10:16] the voter rolls that they're looking at, whether it's the door knocks that you just, uh, spoke of, [10:22] that is all to show, uh, these people that they're doing something, um, and to save face, [10:28] uh, because they made this huge promise that there was somehow this massive, um, illegals that were, [10:36] um, you know, sort of like undocumented people, uh, that were voting, uh, in American elections, [10:44] and that there is something, um, that they need to go, uh, and, and fix. And so they, you know, [10:51] they're going to try to chin up, um, this sort of like frenzy, uh, and, and I think ultimately their, [11:00] their goal is to intimidate and like scare people, um, from, from wanting to participate and vote. [11:09] Uh, but, you know, as I was driving up here today, um, we were getting calls that people, [11:15] you know, are just like, there's a massive line at early voting sites. Um, [11:21] and a lot of our, uh, staff that are, um, you know, helping people, uh, drive to, to go vote [11:29] or saying, you know, we, we just, we, we don't have the capacity to keep up with the requests [11:33] that we're getting of people who need assistance to, to get to, um, the early voting site. And I [11:38] think it's doing the opposite. When you say part of your theory of this is that they've made these [11:44] promises and it does feel like, you know, they have been promising this. And when we get in, [11:49] we're going to get that Ilhan Omar, um, JD Vance and the vice president of the United States says, [11:53] we, we, we definitely, I think definitively think she has committed an immigration fraud, [12:00] which is a statement, right? He's like, we got her. Now it's a question of what we do with her. [12:05] Yeah. Um, which is also interesting in itself because they are now saying, you know, [12:11] this is the beginning of the investigation. So if you, if you had, um, [12:16] um, so confidently said, I've committed a crime, why are you now saying this is the beginning, [12:23] you know, we're, we're subpoenaing, you know, we're going to subpoena people. We're going to [12:26] do a grand jury. We're going to try to find evidence that that would lead to an indictment. [12:30] Um, it's, it, it's just, it's all bizarre. The reporting indicates that they are trying to [12:38] find some evidence that they could use to, um, either criminally prosecute you for conspiracy to [12:46] commit immigration fraud, I believe is some of the reporting and or denaturalize you take away [12:51] your American citizenship and finally either incarcerate or deport you. How seriously do you [12:58] take that? Oh, I, I, I take it very seriously. Um, and I'm sure my lawyers are taking it very seriously. [13:07] Uh, and you know, it would be, um, a huge undertaking to, I suppose, indict, you know, a 12 year old for [13:17] being so cleverly, um, uh, you know, conspiring to, to, to, you know, um, to defraud immigration [13:29] services to come to the United States. It's such a, I don't know. Um, I'm sure there are a lot of [13:35] smart 12 year olds, but that, that seems like a leap. I'm trying to figure out the way to do this [13:40] that isn't, doesn't sound like I'm insane, but, and I'm saying this up front because like the [13:46] president of the United States is, you know, one of the biggest bullhorns, right? And every time he [13:50] talks about you, he will casually say something wild about you. Like he'll, he will tweet, [13:56] Ilhan Omar, she married her brother, blah, blah. You think you see that, you think to yourself, [14:00] boy, that sounds odd. I don't, it seems unlikely that she married her brother. There are right wing [14:05] people who believe that this man was your brother. Right. You have called it a disgusting lie. Right. [14:11] Well, you, who, who was this man that was your husband? When did they start saying that he was [14:15] your brother? Why? It started with the Somali blog, um, uh, that I don't know if it still exists, [14:24] but somebody put in there that, you know, that he had to have been my brother or something to that [14:29] effect. And, um, right wing conspiracy theorists in Minneapolis got a hold of it and they just kind [14:37] of went and like found random people who were like, she introduced us, uh, you know, she introduced him [14:43] to us and said he was her brother. Um, which is, you know, insane. I mean, I don't, I don't know those [14:50] people that they talk about. He was not, you were not related to him at all. Not that. There's not [14:56] like some, there's not some weird kernel of truth that through some game of telephone. Not to my [14:59] knowledge. That was the big gotcha, right? In terms of what you're talking about promising. Like, [15:03] we're going to nail her on the marriage. Yeah. That was the source of the immigration fraud. [15:08] That no longer seems to be the issue that they are putatively investigating, right? Right. [15:13] They've now moved on to whatever your representations your father made in his naturalization process [15:20] about you. Yeah. Is that your understanding? But it's also very convenient because my dad is no [15:26] longer alive. Right. Right. So it's a, it's another thing they can drag on forever. Right. Because [15:34] there's no, because the person who signed the paperwork and did it all is no, no longer here [15:39] to answer the charges. Right. Even though they have the papers that he signed. Right. And, and [15:45] like the people who knocked on my door searching for papers, literally have his papers. They, [15:53] they are the ones who processed us to come to the United States. Right. And they have all of that. [15:57] Right. Right. Let me ask about the second part of the world that the president has conjured about [16:03] you, which is, which is your fabulous wealth. He has said that like, I mean, again, he just, [16:09] you can never track what the president's actually saying, because he says a lot of things. [16:13] That you have all this money, that you drive a lot of cars, you have houses. They cited a financial [16:19] disclosure for, for, for Congress that initially said that your husband's firm was worth $30 million. [16:25] That was before an accountant put in the liabilities of that firm, which then brought the 30 million [16:31] down to like essentially net zero, $20,000, which did make me worry a little about your husband's [16:37] business to be honest. He's not in them anymore. I was like, well, that seems like a big difference [16:42] between $30 million and $20,000. There was a congressional oversight body that voted that there was no [16:49] wrongdoing. There's no evidence of wrongdoing. What, what is your financial situation? [16:54] I mean, it's, you know, working, working class, I guess, like paycheck to paycheck still, you know, [16:59] we've got four kids. Um, and you know, we, we, we live, I think like a basic life. I, I have a [17:06] Toyota Camry that's from 2016. It's my only car. Um, I rent my DC place and my Minneapolis place. And so, [17:16] I mean, I don't know if that sounds like, you know, not majority of Congress, but there's some [17:22] of us that are, that don't come from wealth and don't have wealth. Is that a big divide in Congress? [17:27] It is. Yeah. Cause you have like the millionaires and, and then you have those of us, you know, [17:34] when we first went to Congress, had to borrow money to find a place to sleep. It's expensive [17:38] actually to live in two places. Yeah. Do you, how do you feel about being in that apartment and that, [17:46] the, the place that you live since the, since the search, does it, I don't know, [17:52] does there like a lasting after effect of something like that? Yeah. I mean, obviously, [17:58] I can't continue to live there. Um, so if they figure out where the, where, where to move to, [18:04] because why not, because our address has been public and with the death threats that I deal with, [18:11] um, it's not, it's no longer going to be feasible, um, to be in that house and have my kids like [18:18] visiting off and on having people track them. I know that you, there's a dynamic in which [18:27] it's very clear that a bunch of effort has been made by the president, Stephen Miller on down [18:32] to put a tremendous amount of pressure on you and to intimidate you and having interviewed you [18:38] many times and knowing you a little bit now, a desire on your part to not let the bastard see you [18:45] sweat. Is that fair? I think that's in my DNA. It is very much, right? Which is like, [18:52] I am not going to let them see me break because I know they want that. Yeah. At the same time, [19:00] every time I see something like this, having now covered you for many years, interviewing you first [19:04] when you were a state legislator, I think to myself, that is a lot of pressure for one person. Right. [19:13] Like, does it feel that way? Yeah. I mean, in, in my faith teachings, you know, we, we believe that, [19:22] that God doesn't give you more than you can handle, that he doesn't burden us with more than we can [19:27] handle. And I think, you know, I, I'm, I'm designed uniquely by God to withstand all of this. And I [19:37] think what the, the president and, you know, these crazy people who have been after me and my family, [19:49] and have been after my life because, you know, the enormous level of death threats that I deal with, [19:55] and my family and generally deals with, um, is, is that, you know, I, I am a person of enormous faith. [20:07] And I know that, you know, if I continue to live my truth, if I continue to fight for the right things, [20:17] if I continue to stand up to bullies and people who are carrying out ungodly corruption, [20:25] I'm going to be okay. Do you ever want to just tap out? [20:32] And I, I think, I think that is, now, now you've got the real question. Um, I think that is ultimately [20:38] what they want. Um, what, well, you know, I mean, obviously they like to see me locked up, [20:43] deported and all of those things, but I think they want worse than that. Unfortunately. [20:47] Yeah. But I think like the, the bigger satisfaction for them would be for me to be like, listen, [20:54] like, I'm tired of all of you and I'm going to leave because they've always believed that someone [21:02] of my background, um, you know, of my faith, uh, shouldn't be in Congress, shouldn't have a position, [21:10] um, where they are influencing us law. Uh, and I think that's, you know, that's, [21:17] that's ultimately the thing that they, that they want. Um, but in, in a country, [21:22] I know the president keeps saying, and she talks with the constitution in a country governed by [21:27] our constitution, I have a legal right to be a member of Congress. And I am honored that the [21:32] people who helped welcome my family and helped to raise me also think so. [21:36] He, he said all sorts of things about you. Um, the other day he said, I forget what he said, [21:44] but that, but it's DOJ. I don't have anything to do with it. Do you think it's true he doesn't [21:48] have anything to do with it? Oh, absolutely not. I mean, he's got everything to do with it. Um, [21:54] you know, this, this goes back to 2019, um, when he was screaming about the fact that, [22:03] you know, I, I need to be sent back, I need to be deported, um, which then he ordered his [22:10] Department of Homeland Security to investigate me. And in that investigation, they produced a one-page memo [22:19] saying, you know, her citizenship is solid. There's nothing for us to look at. Um, and at that time, [22:28] they even looked at my father because he was still alive. Uh, and so for them to, you know, say that, [22:35] like my status as a citizen in this country was solid, and then to have that same department now [22:44] saying there's something wrong tells you how political, um, this whole investigation is. [22:51] Did you, when I read that Washington Post piece, I thought, did you catch wind of that happening [22:55] back in 2019? Did you know that was happening? No. So did you learn it? I only saw it in the [22:59] Washington Post reporting, uh, a couple of days ago. So that's when you learned that they had done this [23:05] behind the scenes. Yes. And basically said, no, there's nothing here. Yes. I did, I did hear that [23:12] they opened, that there was an opening of my immigration file. Um, but I didn't know to the [23:19] extent of what the opening of my investigation meant and who opened it. The woman who is overseas [23:28] the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C., which is the office that went to the judge to get the [23:33] warrant, even though it was HSI agents and not the FBI, is Janine Pirro. Right. She did a very long [23:39] monologue back in 2019 in which she heaped a lot of criticism and scorn at you. One of the things she [23:45] said at the time was that. Because I wear a hijab that I cannot be a member of Congress and swear to [23:53] the Constitution. That you're, that wearing a hijab was inherently incompatible essentially with the U.S. [23:58] Constitution. Yeah. And that I couldn't take an oath. What does it say to you that [24:05] she is the woman who is now, like, overseeing a criminal investigation? Again, how more obvious [24:12] could these people be? You know, it's like there, there is, you could at least have the appearance [24:18] of not having this be, um, fictitious, not having this be, um, directed by the president and everybody [24:28] in his administration who hates me. Um, but they've chosen to blatantly have [24:34] every character that has been involved be someone who has expressed, um, explicitly that they don't [24:44] want me, um, to be in the United States and they don't want to be, they don't want me to be in, [24:49] in Congress. I mean, from Mullen to J.D. Vance to the president to, you know, the district attorney. [24:57] In fact, Stephen Miller's wife, when you were, when you were searched, posted promises made, [25:02] promises kept, and then deleted it. Yeah. What do you think she meant? Well, she meant exactly what [25:08] she meant, that they did make this promise, uh, to get me, um, and that they are keeping that promise [25:14] to get me. Former President Barack Obama had a very lengthy post in which he, um, strongly criticized the, [25:23] um, both the search that was executed on you, search warrant executed on you, and the attempts to [25:29] possibly denaturalize or deport you. Um, what did it mean to you? He doesn't really weigh in on [25:37] everything, so it, he sort of preserves this weight when he weighs in on something and says something. [25:42] He had a lot to say. What did you make of his statement? I mean, I think a lot of the conspiracy [25:54] world, um, that I find myself in, um, is the conspiracy world that was created around him. [26:02] Um, and so while some people might feel reserved, um, in some of the information that they hear from [26:10] these people, I think he is, you know, acutely capable of seeing what this is, um, what the purpose [26:20] of what they are doing is, uh, and that no matter how much you want to fight and debunk, [26:29] they, you know, there's never going to be any evidence, any clearing of your name, um, [26:36] because they are going to continue to, you know, they're going to continue to believe these things [26:42] because it has now become, uh, a desperate truth to them that they have to hold on to. [26:49] Have you felt like the, I mean, many members of the Democratic Caucus have spoken up and talked [26:55] about how outraged and they've called for oversight hearings when and if Democrats get the gavel. Do [26:59] you feel like, do you feel like your colleagues have gotten your back? I do. I do, um, privately and [27:05] publicly. Um, people have been, um, incredibly kind whether they are in elected office in Congress or [27:13] elected around the country. Um, I, I, I feel covered. Have any Republicans reached out [27:20] to be like, this sucks? No. Not a single one? No. Nowhere. Any of the, not your Minnesota [27:30] delegation members? No. No, no, no. I mean, they're like, one of them is actually on TV [27:36] every day saying, when are we arresting her? So, you know, Emmer would like to distract from the [27:42] fact that he is like one of the worst whips in the history of America and that, you know, his like, [27:49] best friend was, uh, you know, a child sex trafficker, um, who's now serving 26 years. So, [27:56] you know, he doesn't want people to talk about his shitty record. He would like people to be focused [28:01] on me. Are you confident that you're going to come out on the other side of this with your freedom [28:11] intact? I'm confident in my truth. Um, I'm confident in the fact that I didn't do anything wrong. [28:17] I'm confident in the fact that, you know, if there were real people, um, who are not politically [28:24] motivated, like there were real people in 2019, um, and there were real people in 2024, um, when they [28:32] looked at my husband and my finances, um, that yeah, there, there, there would be no indictment. [28:40] There would be, you know, um, no continuation, um, of this. And yes, they would never have been, [28:46] as, as everyone has said, even people who are currently at DOJ, uh, that there was no reason [28:52] to execute this search warrant because in the search warrant, it also said they had a window of [28:58] 6 AM to 10 PM. Hmm. So to come at six, um, tells you that, you know, and then they tipped off Fox News, [29:06] right? They were the first on site, um, and they're, they're trolls. Uh, and so, you know, it, it, it, [29:13] you, everybody can see this for what it is. Uh, and you know, I, I, I do feel confident, [29:19] um, that when it's all said and done, um, that I'm going to be just fine. [29:24] Hey, it's Rachel. I am so glad to see you at the end of that clip, because this is where I get to [29:30] tell you about a new way to watch all our clips and all of our shows and everything on MSNOW on your [29:36] phone or your tablet or your laptop. You can watch things live or recorded. Plus you can ask me and all [29:42] the other hosts and reporters questions in our weekly live chats. You can go to ms.now slash [29:49] membership, or just click below. Thanks.