Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) hit back at her Republican critics on Sunday, saying that they often try to find controversy in her comments.
CBS “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan asked Omar about a video the National Republican Committee posted on Saturday, which claimed to show Omar comparing the slave dungeons she visited in Ghana to migrant detention centers at the U.S. southern border.
“So I’m only controversial because people seem to want the controversy,” the Democratic lawmaker said in response.
Omar explained that she was saying in the video that the stories of Ghanaian slaves being forcefully separated from their families rang similar to migrant children being separated from their parents when crossing the Mexican-U.S. border.
“But you didn’t mean it as an attack on U.S. border agents?” Brennan asked.
“Absolutely not,” Omar replied. “I think this is always the point, right? There is always an implied intent to every conversation I have.”
“And if you listen to the video, one comparison of what the dungeons looked like and people being sold was to what was happening in North Africa, and the other one was of family separations and of course we obviously have a crisis here with our family separation policies,” she added.
The Muslim congresswoman, who sought asylum from Somalia as a child, is a frequent target of attacks from conservatives over supposedly being “un-American” or “ungrateful” toward the U.S.
Watch Omar below:
Ilhan Omar on her critics: "I’m only controversial because people seem to want the controversy." pic.twitter.com/DDsiOQtkzm
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) September 15, 2019
