- President Donald Trump made disparaging comments at a rally on Tuesday night about Rep. Ilhan Omar for a being a refugee who fled Somalia when she was eight.
- “She’s telling us how to run our country. How did you do where you came from? How was your country doing?” Trump said.
- Omar who is the first Somali-American to serve in the House of Representatives fired back reminding the President that she fled civil war in the 1990s and that she helped impeach him last year.
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President Donald Trump attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar during a rally on Tuesday night, attacking her for fleeing Somalia as a refugee when she was eight.
“She’s telling us how to run our country. How did you do where you came from? How was your country doing?” Trump said.
Omar is the first Somali-American and one of the first Muslim women to serve in the US House Representatives. She spent her early years as a refugee who fled Somalia with her family in the early 1990s.
In response to Trump’s remarks, Omar said: “Firstly, this is my country & I am a member of the House that impeached you.”
She added: “Secondly, I fled civil war when I was 8. An 8-year-old doesn’t run a country even though you run our country like one.”
—Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) September 23, 2020
This isn't the first Trump has directed disparaging comments at Omar.
In 2019, Trump tweeted that "Progressive' Democrat Congresswomen" to "go back" to their "corrupt" and "broken and crime infested" countries. He then also claimed that the congresswomen were "loudly [...] and viciously telling the people of the United States [...] how our government is to be run."
A few days after the tweets, a crowd at a Trump rally in Greenville, North Carolina, chanted "send her back!" in reference to Omar.
—Jon Passantino (@passantino) July 17, 2019
"She looks down with contempt on the hard-working Americans, saying that ignorance is pervasive in many parts of this country," Trump said about Omar before the crowd broke into the chant.
Trump offered no rebuke to the chant.