Representative Ilhan Omar Must Be Expelled From Congress And Deported
It used to be that when a member of Congress delivered a fiery political speech in an election year, there were a few things you could take for granted.
For one thing, you could assume the speech related in some way to the United States and its citizens. You could also bet the people listening to the speech and clapping at all the applause lines were invested in some way in the future of America. You might disagree with them, or even think their policies would be really, really bad for the country. But there was never any doubt that American politicians understood that their job was to address America’s problems. That was the bare minimum you could expect.
Somewhere along the line, though, our leaders managed to sell the theory that rescuing third-world refugees and importing them into the United States would solve a lot of our problems. A generation or so later, that lie is the reason nearly 100,000 residents of the state of Minnesota speak Somali. It’s also the reason that Ilhan Omar, instead of being stuck in the single poorest place on the planet, is now a sitting member of Congress. Whether she married her brother or committed tax fraud isn’t even relevant to the champions of diversity who welcomed her across our borders. Neither is the question of whether Ilhan Omar likes this country or anyone living in it. Instead, she and many of her constituents were allowed into the United States, supposedly on the theory that they’d assimilate, enrich our quality of life and contribute to our economy.
That was never going to be the outcome though, and this weekend Ilhan Omar made that very clear, in the form of a fiery election-year speech in a hotel somewhere in Minneapolis. This speech had nothing to do with America’s interests. It was not about Ilhan Omar’s plans to improve the life of a single American citizen, in Minnesota or otherwise. In fact, this speech wasn’t even delivered in English. Even though most Americans don’t speak Somali, I still want to share this short clip so you can see some of the subtitles. Watch:
Ilhan Omar tells a crowd of Somalians that her top priority is to put Somalia first and expand its territory
“The US government will do what we want, nothing else. They must follow our orders. That is how we safeguard the interest of Somalia.”
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 28, 2024
Now, I don’t speak Somali — I must have skipped that class in grade school — so I can’t vouch for the translation that’s been accompanying that clip on social media, which you can see if you’re watching the video. If you aren’t, the gist of the translation is that Ilhan Omar is telling this crowd of Somali-Americans that they’re all Somalis first, and Muslims second, and they need to come to the aid of other Somalis and other Muslims. She doesn’t even mention the word “American” at all. Somalis first, Muslims second, and Americans not at all, apparently.
She goes on to criticize people living in Somaliland, which borders Somalia, and she suggests they’re not real Somalis. Then she briefly talks about the recent memorandum of understanding between Somaliland and Ethiopia, in which Ethiopia gained access to the sea in exchange for recognizing Somaliland as a sovereign state. You probably never heard about any of this because it’s not relevant to your life at all, and the geopolitical disputes between Somalia and Ethiopia and this other place you may not have known even existed has no bearing on the United States or its legitimate interests.
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Nonetheless, Ilhan Omar is very invested in this issue, because like a lot of progressives, she’s a hardcore nationalist when it comes to countries she actually cares about. She’s not worried if America is overrun with foreigners, but she desperately doesn’t want Somaliland to have any kind of recognition, because that would undermine Somalia’s national identity. Therefore, Omar promises to do her best to prevent this agreement with Ethiopia from being finalized. She says Americans will do whatever Somalis want, presumably because we’re so weak and naive.
To that end, Omar declares in no uncertain terms that she’s working to protect Somali interests in Congress, as opposed to American interests. From the translation:
The US government will do what we Somalians in the U.S. tell them to do. They will do what we want and nothing else. That is how we will safeguard the interest of Somalia. .. I am here to protect the interests of Somalia from inside the U.S. system. [I’m] working day and night to protect your interests. … Together we will protect the interests of Somalia.
It should go without saying but if that translation is even remotely accurate, then obviously Ilhan Omar needs to be expelled from Congress and deported immediately, if not imprisoned for treason. We’re a complete joke of a country if we allow people like this to serve in public office.
She’s openly admitting to working as a foreign agent against America’s interests. Some of Omar’s defenders apparently realized how bad this looks, and they sprang into action. Shortly after that translation began circulating on social media, someone named Colin Robinson posted,
This interpretation is slanted. Omar says she is representing the interests of Somalis in the United States, which is a legitimate task, as a Congresswoman in any democratic system.
So to be clear, this guy’s not talking about the “translation” of Omar’s remarks per se, but rather the “interpretation.”
Then, Ilhan Omar posted this reply to Colin Robinson,
It’s not only slanted but completely off, but I wouldn’t expect more from these propagandists. I pray for them and for their sanity. No nation state can survive if its states start to get involved in land lease negotiations with other countries without the consent of the federal government. Somalis in Somalia and in the diaspora are united in that effort and I stand in solidarity with them. No amount of harassment and lies will ever change that.
It’s not only slanted but completely off, but I wouldn’t expect more from these propagandists. I pray for them and for their sanity. No nation state can survive if its states start to get involved in land lease negotiations with other countries without the consent of the federal… https://t.co/bmdEAN6aUH
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 28, 2024
You’ll notice that nowhere in Omar’s reply does she dispute the literal accuracy of any part of the translation. She’s instead stating that the “interpretation” of her remarks is both “slanted” and “completely off,” without explaining further. She was as vague as she could have possibly been.
That’s why, last night, I asked Omar directly,
Are you denying the literal accuracy of the translation? Saying that the ‘interpretation’ is ‘slanted’ is not the same as saying the translation is inaccurate.
Are you denying the literal accuracy of the translation? Saying that the “interpretation” is “slanted” is not the same as saying the translation is inaccurate. https://t.co/XkW3wp6mL7
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) January 29, 2024
Now, you’d think that if she was really being misquoted to a great degree, Omar would have replied to my question, or the thousands of other people talking about her remarks last night. But she didn’t. She ignored all of us.
Not everyone was silent, though. A woman named Rhoda J Elmi, who identified herself as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Republic of Somaliland, confirmed the accuracy of the translation on social media. She wrote,
The language she employed was regrettably unbecoming of both the office she holds and the constituents she represents. … Her use of ethno-racist rhetoric didn’t escape attention and left many, with a deep sense of disappointment. .. 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.
To be fair, this ambassador is hostile to Ilhan Omar. So are the various publications in Somaliland that are publicizing her speech — including something called the “Somaliland Chronicle.” They aren’t the most impartial sources on this topic, because Ilhan Omar doesn’t even want them recognized as a country.
But when I checked a handful of other translations online from various sources, I didn’t see anything that was much different. Instead, I heard repeatedly that the initial social media translation was accurate in the broad sense — meaning that while the words may or may not not be precisely right, the meaning is correct.
But none of these details really matter, for a simple reason: It’s not the job of any American citizen to have to decode what a sitting U.S. congresswoman is saying in a political speech in this country. If there’s any confusion about the translation, or what exactly was said about…
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