Fox News’ Guerin Hays asks Ilhan Omar about last week’s Politico article: “Do you think President Obama is the same as President Trump?”
Omar: “Absolutely not. … One is human the other is not”
Omar’s dehumanizing remarks come after she was slammed last week for anti-Semitism
Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar has been facing a lot of questions after she was quoted criticizing former president Barack Obama. Omar, never one to shy away from controversy, told Politico that the Obama administration had a lot to answer for in terms of its treatment of immigrants, and its use of drone strikes. On Monday, a Fox News reporter caught up with Omar and asked her whether she really believed that Trump and Obama were the same. You can watch Omar’s exchange with the reporter here. The reporter asked Omar, “Do you think President Obama is the same as President Trump?”
Omar was silent for a while; she and another woman walked down the hallway without a word. But just as their elevator arrived Omar turned and answered the question. She said, “Absolutely not. That is silly, to even think and equate the two. One is human. The other is really not.”
In an article published last week, Politico reported that Omar had talked about her disappointment in the Obama administration, claiming that the “hope and change” Obama promised was a mirage. Omar talked about the “caging of kids” at the U.S.-Mexico border and the “droning of countries around the world” that took place during the Obama administration; she reportedly told Politico that Obama was following many of the same policies that Trump follows now. Omar said:
“We can’t be only upset with Trump. … His policies are bad, but many of the people who came before him also had really bad policies. They just were more polished than he was,” Omar says. “And that’s not what we should be looking for anymore. We don’t want anybody to get away with murder because they are polished. We want to recognize the actual policies that are behind the pretty face and the smile.”
Omar tweeted that her words had been twisted and taken out of context for the Politico story, but she later took down that tweet.