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'This is my country': Rep. Ilhan Omar responds to Trump's attacks over her Somali roots

Posted at 5:26 AM, Sep 23, 2020
and last updated 2020-09-23 09:13:18-04

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, has responded to comments President Donald Trump made at a rally on Tuesday in which he implied that because Omar's is a Somali immigrant that it lessened her status as a lawmaker.

Trump made the comments Thursday while attacking the Democratic party's progressive wing, a group that goes by "The Squad."

"We're going to win the state of Minnesota because of (Omar), they say," Trump said during a rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday. "She's telling us how to run our country. How did you do where you came from? How is your country doing?"

Omar was born in Somalia, but her family fled the war-torn country when she was a child. She arrived in the United States in the 1990s and her family moved to Minneapolis in 1997. She is a naturalized American citizen.

Omar is the first Somali-American representatives in Congress and the first woman of color to represent Minnesota.

Omar responded to Trump's comments in a series of tweets on Tuesday night.

"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," Omar said.

She later followed up that tweet with a GIF from the movie "Mean Girls."

Omar is currently in her first term as a Congresswoman and will be up for re-election in November. Recent polls show that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is leading Trump in Minnesota.