Progressive leftist "Squad" member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) made some highly controversial remarks in a speech on Saturday that has some Republican critics calling for her to face a variety of extreme consequences for her words.
That includes Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who suggested the Somalia-native Omar should be expelled from Congress, denaturalized of her acquired U.S. citizenship, and deported back to her East African nation of origin, the Washington Examiner reported.
The congresswoman's remarks as translated -- delivered in the Somali language to Somalian constituents in her Minneapolis district -- seemed to indicate that her loyalties lie with her home nation and religious faith ahead of the U.S., that her purpose in Congress is to advance and defend the interests of Somalia, and that she supports genocidal ethnic cleansing to reclaim disputed territory occupied by other African peoples.
On Monday, Gov. DeSantis ensured that there'd be no mistaking exactly where he stood regarding the things said by Rep. Omar in her Saturday speech to Somali constituents in the district she was elected to represent.
In a post that included a video clip and translation of the congresswoman's remarks, the Florida governor who previously served as a congressman, wrote of Omar, "Expel from Congress, denaturalize and deport!"
Expel from Congress, denaturalize and deport! https://t.co/UyjEmSSIoQ
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) January 30, 2024
In the video clip shared by Gov. DeSantis -- the translation of which has been disputed by some, according to the Examiner -- Rep. Omar appeared to say at one point that she and her constituents were "Somalians first, Muslims second," with no mention of America or the U.S. citizenship she and other Somali-Americans have gained.
She went on to remind her constituents that they elected her to Congress and that she was serving in Washington D.C. as a voice representing and fighting for the interests of their home nation of Somalia regarding the U.S. government's foreign policies in the East Africa region.
At another point in her remarks, Omar praised the current president of Somalia for the job he was doing leading that country and referred to him as "our president" while addressing her voters in Minneapolis.
The context of the congresswoman's remarks was the ongoing land dispute between her native nation of Somalia and a breakaway region known as Somaliland seeking independence with the support of neighboring African states like Ethiopia and Kenya.
In speaking on that conflict, however, Omar appeared to use ethno-nationalist and genocidal language in declaring that "Somalia is for Somalis only," and that all non-Somalis must be driven out of the lands occupied by Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya to unify the territories that make up an idealized nation known as "Greater Somalia."
The congresswoman's remarks on the ongoing conflict particularly raised some eyebrows, the Examiner noted, because Omar's father was a Soviet-trained officer in the Somali military when that national army waged an egregious genocide in the late 1980s against breakaway Somaliland in which it is estimated that tens or even hundreds of thousands of civilians and fighters were slaughtered by government forces, though it is unknown if Omar's father directly participated in the killings.
To be sure, Rep. Omar and her defenders have disputed the translated video clip of her speech that went viral and offered up a different translation of their own.
However, while that alternate translation seemed to clean up or strip out most of the ethno-nationalist and genocidal language, it was still quite clear that Omar's loyalties lie first with Somalia and that she is exploiting her position within Congress to work on behalf of the interests of her nation of origin.
