Trump attacks Ilhan Omar again days after asking her how 'her country' was doing: 'How did she come here?'
On Saturday, September 26, President Donald Trump held a rally in Middletown, Pennsylvania, where he did not miss the chance to take a dig at Ilhan Omar. Slamming the Democrat, who represents Minnesota in the House of Representatives, the POTUS said, “Ilhan Omar, that's a great one, she's a great one, always complaining, she's always complaining,” as he added: “Came here, things worked out for her, how did she come here? Does anybody know how she came here?"
This was the second jibe at Omar that Trump took this week. Earlier, during a rally in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, September 22, he commented, “She's telling us how to run our country! How did you do where you came from? How is your country doing?" However, when the footage of the 74-year-old’s comment emerged on Twitter, Omar did not hold back and hit back by saying: “Firstly, this is my country & I am a member of the House that impeached you. Secondly, I fled civil war when I was 8. An 8-year-old doesn’t run a country even though you run our country like one." She then posted a Mean Girls meme, which read, “These cult-like rallies leave me wondering one thing: Why are you so obsessed with me?" Omar also got support from a number of people online who called Trump's remarks "racist".
The 37-year-old is a Somalia born, who left the East African country as a child and has been a citizen of the US for the last 20 years. She recently wrote an opinion piece for The Washington Post, titled: “If Democrats want to win, focus on nonvoters”. Starting her article, she attacked Trump and wrote, “President Trump went after me yet again this week: ‘How about Omar?’ he said at a rally in Pennsylvania. ‘We’re going to win the state of Minnesota because of her.’ He then launched into a xenophobic, false attack implying I wasn’t American. ‘She’s telling us how to run our country. How did you do where you came from?’ he asked the crowd. (For the record, I fled civil war when I was 8 years old and am a naturalized U.S. citizen who serves our nation in Congress.)
“As offensive as his remarks are, I have seen the media and even Democrats fall for his argument. We need to win over former Trump voters, the thinking goes, and we can’t do that if we embrace progressive leaders and policies. But while winning swing voters is important, there is a key constituency Democrats need in November that is almost entirely left out of the conversation: nonvoters.”
Backing her words, Omar also added a few statistics: “In 2016, 6 million people who voted for President Barack Obama in 2012 supported Trump. Yet an even greater proportion of Obama supporters — 6.7 million — didn’t vote at all or voted for third-party candidates. Evidence shows these voters are more persuadable than those we lost to Trump. They hold views that are similar to those of consistent Democratic voters and are more likely to support progressive policies. They’re also more likely to be working class, immigrants and people of color. In 2016, just 28 percent of voters had an income under $30,000, compared with more than half of nonvoters. Of nonvoters, according to the New York Times, 52 percent were non-White, compared with 35 percent of Hillary Clinton voters and just 16 percent of Trump voters.”