Ilhan Omar calls Tucker Carlson ‘racist fool’; he says she’s an example of ‘dangerous’ immigration

Rep. Ilhan Omar said Tuesday night that Fox News host Tucker Carlson was a “racist fool” after he aired a segment saying the congresswoman is an example of “dangerous” immigration.

“It’s really quite disappointing to see Fox News give a nightly platform to the white supremacist rhetoric that’s coming from the likes of him,” the Minnesota Democrat, who was born in Somalia and secured U.S. asylum in 1995, said Wednesday to a pool of reporters.

“I truly believe he is a racist fool who is quite weeping about the fact that we have an African born member of Congress, the kind of people, the likes of him, come from s—-hole countries and the fact he doesn’t get the opportunity to ban me from this country and now he gets to call me a Congresswoman. I’m sure [it] pisses him off,” Ms. Omar said.

“He’ll eventually get used to it. And I think advertisers should not be underwriting this kind of dangerous, hateful rhetoric,” she added.

Mr. Carlson, who previously called Ms. Omar “a symbol of America’s failed immigration system,” started by praising the lawmaker’s story as an American success.

“She became a citizen, then went to work for the state university. A few years later, she became a member of Congress elected by voters who are proud to see an immigrant succeed,” Mr. Carlson said. “Omar is now at the age of only 36, one of the most powerful women in America. It’s an amazing story really. Only in this country could it have happened.”

Mr. Carlson then changed his tone, blasting Ms. Omar for calling the U.S. an “immoral country” and said many of the statements she makes “accuses Americans of bigotry and racism.”

“Ilhan Omar has an awful lot to be grateful for, but she isn’t grateful. Not at all. After everything America has done for Omar and for her family, she hates this country more than ever,” he said.

“Omar is living proof that the way we practice immigration has become dangerous to this country. A system designed to strengthen America is instead undermining it. Some of the very people we try hardest to help have come to hate us passionately,” he said, adding she was “a living fire alarm, a warning to the rest of us that we better change our immigration system immediately, or else.”

The Minnesota Democrat originally tweeted Tuesday evening in response to the segment: “Not gonna lie, it’s kinda fun watching a racist fool like this weeping about my presence in Congress.”

“No lies will stamp out my love for this country or my resolve to make our union more perfect. They will just have to get used to calling me Congresswoman,” she said.

CNN’s “New Day” anchor John Berman said the comment was “flat out racist,” and contributor Errol Louis compared it to “racist garbage” he’s heard on talk radio.

In an email Wednesday to The Washington Times, a producer for Mr. Carlson’s program addressed Ms. Omar’s attack and said a response was forthcoming on the evening’s edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

“Anyone who values democracy and free expression should be gravely concerned when members of Congress demand that their critics be silenced,” said senior executive producer Justin Wells. “Tucker will address this on tonight’s show.”