'I am as American as everyone else': Rep. Ilhan Omar fires back at critics questioning her patriotis
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) defended herself Wednesday against critics who questioned her loyalty to the United States after she referenced the 9/11 terrorist attacks in a short clip that circulated widely on social media this week, triggering a wave of outrage from the right.
“I took an oath to uphold the Constitution,” the freshman congresswoman said during a Wednesday appearance on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.” “I am as American as everyone else is.”
Omar’s 9/11 remark, a brief moment during a roughly 20-minute-long speech given last month at a Council on American-Islamic Relations event in Los Angeles, came after she incorrectly said the organization, which was founded in 1994, was created in response to the attacks. Omar, a Somali refugee, is Muslim.
“Far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen and frankly, I’m tired of it and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it,” Omar said at the event. “CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.”
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