Rep. Ilhan Omar said she attributes a rise in bigotry in America to President Trump’s occupancy of the Oval Office.
“Obviously, because we have a xenophobic in office, someone who is extremely anti-Muslim, someone who announced his campaign and said he was going to ban Muslims from this country, who has succeeded with that,” Omar said Saturday on MSNBC. “With anti-Muslim rhetoric … anti-black rhetoric … are dealing with the trifecta of that hate. And it’s just really, completely devastating because we are a country that is beautifully diverse that has come a long way to create a place of acceptance and inclusion.”
Omar, an immigrant from Somalia, is a member of the so-called Squad of liberal Democrats who have drawn Trump’s ire for repeatedly attacking him and his supporters as racists.
Trump suggested last summer that Omar and her fellow Squad members “go back” to where they came from and suggested they should appreciate America more.
Omar, one of the first two Muslim women in Congress, was commenting on the candidacy of Amani al Khatahtbeh, a fellow Muslim who is running for Congress in New Jersey.
Al Khatahtbeh announced this week she has received death threats.
“This isn’t my first death threat, and I hesitated to share it, but it’s necessary to see the common experience of Muslims & minorities when hate is normalized by political leaders,” she said. “This is what it feels like.”
Omar has also received death threats during her time in Congress.
“To serve our country and deal with this kind of hate really it sets, I think, the wrong tone and sends a message that our country isn’t as inclusive, as welcoming as we could like it to be,” Omar said. “And so, I work really hard to try to make sure that we are leading with compassion.”
