Black Lives Matter and other anti-Trump groups held a rally on the grounds of the Capitol on Tuesday to call for President Donald Trump to be censured for what he said about Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) controversial statement that “somebody did something” on 9-11.
People chanted ‘“Hands off Ilhan” and in a series of speeches blamed the president and Republicans for the rise of “white supremacy masked as white nationalism.”
Omar spoke at the event in praise of her homeland of Somalia and said the president and his Party are responsible for recent attacks on synagogues and mosques.
“At this moment, the occupant of the White House and his allies are doing everything that they can to distance themselves and misinform the public from the monsters that they created that is [sic] terrorizing the Jewish community and the Muslim community,” Omar said.
Omar said she is criticized because she is a Muslim woman.
“I also happen to be a refugee and immigrant from what they call one of the shithole countries,” Omar said, mocking the president for his alleged comments about war-torn countries like Somalia that drive their people out.
“The reality is that shithole country raised a very proud, dignified person,” Omar said. “Our circumstances may not always be perfect but that doesn’t lessen our humanity and I am not in the business of defending mine.”
Omar was not as complimentary of the United States.
“This is not going to be the country of the xenophobics,” Omar said. “This is not going to be the country of white people.”
“This is not going to be the country of the few,” Omar said. “This is the country of the many.”
“This is the country that was founded on the history of Native American genocide, on the backs of black slaves but also by immigrants,” Omar said.
According to her website: “Ilhan and her family fled the country’s civil war when she was eight-years-old. They lived in a refugee camp in Kenya for four years before coming to the United States, eventually settling in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis in 1997.”
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