Suppose you are a House Democrat who has been in office for 15 or 20 years, dutifully working your way up the ladder as a chair of a subcommittee, raising money for the caucus, etc., and you heart that Ihlan Omar is booked on one of the premier Sunday morning network news shows. Look, even Nancy Pelosi can’t stand Omar and the rest of the squalid “Squad.”
And then you see Omar’s shocking speech from recent days in which she declares:
“The US government will only do what Somalians in the US tell them to do. They will do what we want and nothing else. They must follow our orders and that is how we will safeguard the interest of Somalia. We Somalians must have the confidence in ourselves that we call the shots in the US.”
Here’s the key excerpt, with a longer version below in the Tweet of Somaliland’s deputy foreign minister disavowing Omar (Somaliland is apparently a breakaway province or independent entity—I am not entirely clear):
We were profoundly surprised, even shocked on discovering the remarks made by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D) of Minnesota in a recent public forum, widely circulated on most social media platforms and attached below for your reference.
The language she employed was regrettably… pic.twitter.com/7Ag9ZafTKY
— Ambassador Rhoda J Elmi (@AmbRhodaJElmi) January 28, 2024
Here’s the rest of the Tweet if you don’t want to click through:
The language she employed was regrettably unbecoming of both the office she holds and the constituents she represents.
Her expressions were lacking in common decency and revealed a significant lack of understanding of basic facts. Specifically troubling, were her endeavors to revive the once-violent and dangerous ideology of Greater Somalia or Somali Weyn, which caused so much death, destruction and conflict in the Horn of Africa.
Furthermore, her use of ethno-racist rhetoric didn’t escape attention and left many, with a deep sense of disappointment.
This was particularly bewildering for those who recall similar racist attacks she endured not long ago, of being ”not American enough” and was baffling to see her take a similar approach and accuse the entire #Somaliland nation of “falsely claiming Somali identity.”
Moreover, her ignorance of #US – #Somaliland cooperation in the fight against terror and piracy in the Gulf of Aden & Gulf Of Berbera was shocking to say the least. We hope the house leadership and her caucus will take note of her public conduct, unbecoming a United States Congresswoman nor representative of the august house she serves in.
When you’ve lost the foreign ministry of Somaliland. . . Here’s to hoping Trump’s deportation list just got one name longer. But failing that, I want her to remain in the House and appearing as the face of the progressive Democratic Party on the Sunday talk shows, so Democrats have to own her.
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