(USNewsMag.com) – Conservatives took to social media Jan. 28 to criticize Squad member and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar for her comments supporting her native nation of Somalia.
The comments come after a video was shared by Somaliland’s deputy minister of foreign affairs on Twitter that features Omar speaking in a Minneapolis hotel to an audience of Somali Americans. The video features Omar speaking about Ethiopia’s unrecognized memorandum of understanding with Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. In the memorandum of understanding, Somaliland agreed to lease part of its coastland to the landlocked country of Ethiopia, and Somalia feels the agreement infringes on its territory. In the video, which includes an English translation, Omar states that she is in Congress to represent the interests of Somali Americans. Omar adds that the United States “will do what we want and nothing else.”
Conservatives quickly took to social media to criticize her comments.
House Majority Whip and Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer called on Omar to resign, calling her comments a “direct violation of her oath of office.”
In a post on Twitter, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called Omar a “terrorist sympathizer,” adding that she puts “Somalian first. Muslim second,” with America never mentioned. Greene stated that Omar works to protect the border of Somalia but not the border of the United States. Greene used the post to urge “every like-minded Patriot” to vote.
In response to a post that included the video on the “Israel War Room” page, former Virginia Rep. Denver Riggleman called Omar “a disgraceful representative.”
Omar took to Twitter to respond to the criticism of her comments, claiming that the translation of the comments are “not only slanted but completely off.” Without the federal government’s consent, she added that a nation state can’t survive if its states become “involved in land lease negotiations with other countries.”
In order to get to the leased area, Ethiopians would need to cross through Somalia’s territory, and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has stated if they do, it “will be a problem at a different level.”
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