Donald Trump has targeted Ilhan Omar again as he claimed ‘there’s a lot of talk’ about her being ‘married to her brother’.
The President’s comments come just days after he told Omar, along with fellow Democratic lawmakers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley, ‘to go back to the countries they came from’ – despite the fact all four women women are US citizens and three of them were born in America.
At an impromptu press conference on the White House lawn on Wednesday (July 17), Trump reignited a false rumour about Omar which first surfaced during the congresswoman’s victorious state Senate campaign in 2016, when several conservative blogs accused her of illegally marrying her brother so he could gain American citizenship.
Omar vehemently denied the allegations when they first arose, calling them ‘disgusting lies’ that ‘are absolutely false and ridiculous.’
According to the MailOnline, a reporter from a right-wing news channel asked the president ‘if the administration was looking into possible immigration fraud committed by Ilhan Omar for possibly marrying her brother.’
The President responded:
Well there’s a lot of talk about the fact that she was married to her brother.
I know nothing about it, I hear that she was married to her brother, you’re asking me a question about it. I don’t know but I’m sure that somebody would be looking at that.
Omar originally said she believed the rumour was first spread by people who wanted to stop a black, female Muslim from sitting in Congress.
Snopes reports Omar engaged in a civil marriage with Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, a British citizen, in 2009 but they separated in 2011 and Elmi returned to England. In 2017 Omar formally petitioned for divorce from Elmi, whose last known location was in London as of 2011.
No public records or credible sources contradicting Omar’s account of her past have been found, nor any substantive evidence corroborating claims that Elmi is her brother or that their marriage was fraudulent.
Trump’s claims came before a rally in North Carolina, where he further castigated Omar with a litany of accusations as the crowd chanted ‘Send her back!’, CNN report.
Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders took to Twitter to condemn Trump after his most recent malicious comments about Omar.
He wrote:
#IStandWithIlhan and am proud to work with her in Congress.
Trump is stoking the most despicable and disturbing currents in our society. And that very hatred and racism fuels him. We must fight together to defeat the most dangerous president in the history of our country.
The House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to condemn the President’s tweets targeting the four women.
Texas Democratic Representative Al Green’s read into articles of impeachment of the President following his attack on the Congresswomen, however the House of Representatives voted to kill the impeachment resolution.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.