Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar said she'd be happy to talk with President Donald Trump despite his repeated criticism of her.
Speaking to The New York Times, Omar said she would "invite the president to have Somali tea with us to see how non-garbage and amazing we are," a reference to the word Trump has been using to refer to Somali migrants in recent weeks. "I don't want them in our country. Their country is no good for a reason;" Trump said recently.
In another passage of the interview, Omar said a recent surge in immigration enforcement operations "came in direct response to Trump's racist comments about Somali people, and about me in particular."
However, she said, Trump's rhetoric has not impacted her nor the community. "We feel bad, actually, for the president," she said. "We also know we're not garbage. We have not been broken by the life experiences that we've gone through. Words are not really that hurtful when you've survived war," she added in reference to the fact that she fled Somalia with her family at eight years of age due to the country's civil war.
Omar has also said that Trump's rhetoric have directly fueled threats against her life, arguing that his rhetoric follows a familiar pattern of what she described as "boilerplate xenophobia" that escalates real-world danger.
In an interview with The Guardian last week, Omar said Trump's recent remarks at a rally in Pennsylvania—where he mocked her hijab, repeated a false claim that she married her brother, and told supporters she should be expelled from the country—were "vile" and reflected "a really unhealthy and creepy obsession."
Omar told The Guardian that there is "a clear correlation" between Trump's rhetoric and the level of threats she receives. "When you have the president using dehumanizing language every single day, we know that message gets to the worst humans possible in this country and that they then take action," she said.
Omar is also fighting back against others taking aim at her. Most recently slamming Republican counterpart Randy Fine after he said he's considering forcing a vote in the House to expel her from Congress.
Speaking to Axios, Omar said she doesn't think "anybody takes that man serious." "I don't think he takes himself serious, so nobody should worry about anything he says," Omar added.
Fine, on his end, said he is "actively considering" forcing the move. He pointed at a fundraising email from Omar's campaign suggesting he should be expelled for saying Muslims should be "destroyed."
Axios noted that Fine's eventual effort would likely fail because it needs a two-thirds vote in the House. Should all Republicans join his effort, he would also need the support of about 85 Democrats to expel her.
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