Anti-war protesters challenged far-left “squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) during a town hall event on Thursday in Richfield, Minnesota, for helping to send billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine.
“Both parties are for war, so what difference does it make?” one protester asked the congresswoman, to which she replied claiming to be “anti-war” and suggesting the man vote for independent candidates if he is displeased with the two-party system.
“$80 billion to Ukraine is not anti-war,” the protester replied, before accusing Ukraine of “killing its own citizens.”
“We are helping people survive war,” Omar said while shaking her finger. “We are helping little children like me that haven’t been helped—”
“You’re pressing the big red button” the protester interrupted.
Omar began to shout at the man about “millions of Ukrainians that have been displaced” and “piles of bodies that are being found in mass graves.”
“There are little children whose lives are being lost,” she continued to shout. “You can sit here and talk, but unless you are someone like me that has been that child, you do not get to tell me what my votes mean and how I get to vote in supporting people who desperately need support right now.”
Omar attempted to call on another town hall attendee, but the protester interrupted, yelling, “The United States started this war.”
“It is sad and dangerous for you to a say a war that has been waged by Russia was started by the U.S.,” she replied, later telling the man, “I hope that you find the help that you need.”
Omar is not the only “squad” member to receive backlash for sending money to Ukraine — much of which, research has noted, is ending up in the hands of highly powerful and well-connected Defense Department contractors such as Raytheon Technologies.
Two constituents confronted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in mid-October for voting to send billions in American taxpayer money to fund the war in Ukraine against Russia, which some say could potentially provoke nuclear war.
Ocasio-Cortez could be heard suggesting that there is “a line” between being an anti-war proponent and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to which a man responded: “There is no line because this is bullshit. None of this matters if we’re all dead. None of it. You know that.”
Congress has so far appropriated $65 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine since the conflict between Russia and the embattled nation began. Congress as recently as September allocated $12 billion in aid to Ukraine in a stopgap spending bill to continue funding the government through December. NBC News reported last week that Congress is now pursuing a roughly $50 billion Ukraine aid package.
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