By Gino Spocchia
Monday September 21, 2020
U.S. Rep.) Ilhan Omar (D-1st) and President Donald Trump. (Photo credits: Getty Images, Associated Press)
US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar hit back at Donald Trump for a rant in which he attacked refugees and her personally at a rally in her home state of Minnesota.
“One of the most vital issues in this election is the subject of refugees, you know it, you know it, perhaps better than anybody than almost anybody,” Mr Trump told a crowd of supporters on Friday night.
He then pivoted to attack Ms Omar, who was forced to flee war in Somalia as a child and spent four years in a refugee camp before emigrating to America with her family.
“[Are] you having a good time with your refugees?"
he went on. "That’s good. Omar...that’s a beauty. How the hell did she win? How did she win?”
He then made an unsubstantiated claim that the Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, would "turn Minnesota into a refugee camp".
In a Twitter post on Saturday night, the 37-year-old responded to president’s taunts, writing: “This refugee is going to have a good time voting you out of office.”
“Many have tried and failed miserably to divide Minnesotans, we are greater than fear,” added the “squad” member – who is widely known as belonging to a group of four progressive Democratic women elected to Congress in 2018.
While bragging about deporting Somali nationals, the president claimed to be a “wall between the American dream and chaos," in comments that were widely seen as stoking racial tension.
Mr Trump last year called for Ms Omar and other high-profile Democratic women to "go back" to "the totally broken and crime-infested infested places from which they came."
In a recent interview with The Independent, Ms Omar said the president had “weaponised” minority identities to fire up his base.