Rep. Ilhan Omar said Tuesday that President Trump has always harbored “inherent racism” as the two entered their second week of fiery political attacks.
“Right now, even when we’re talking about the president, people will say, you know, his remarks are racist, and we’ll forget the inherent racism that has always been part of him,” Ms. Omar said, according to CSPAN.
She added that Mr. Trump “always takes an opportunity to others to vilify them and destroy their existence and ability to access our justice system,” citing the then-real estate mogul’s calls for the reinstatement of the death penalty in New York to punish the “Central Park Five,” who would later have their rape convictions withdrawn.
The Minnesota Democrat said during a speech at the Muslim Collective for Equitable Democracy conference that these calls were Mr. Trump “going out of [his] way to ask for lynching for five innocent young men.”
Ms. Omar’s jabs are the latest in a feud between the president and her “Squad” of congresswomen of color — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts — after the president said they should go back to their home countries if they dislike America so much.
Three were born in the U.S. and Ms. Omar, who was originally born in Somalia, has been a naturalized U.S. citizen for more than two decades.
Mr. Trump claimed Tuesday that America’s hatred of Ms. Omar would allow him to win Minnesota in the 2020 presidential election, which hasn’t voted Republican since 1972.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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