CNN Host Presses Ilhan Omar On Whether She ‘Violated’ Her Party’s ‘Guidelines’ and Regrets Yelling at Trump SOTU

 

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) made it clear on Wednesday that she has zero regrets about yelling at President Donald Trump during his State of the Union address, even as CNN’s Wolf Blitzer gave her multiple opportunities to walk things back the day after.

Omar joined Blitzer on CNN’s The Situation Room on Wednesday following video of her spreading on social media, yelling down to the president while he discussed immigration enforcement.

Omar, seated next to Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), yelled down to the president multiple times and accused him of being a murderer. The congresswoman was referring to Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two American citizens shot and killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.

One of Omar’s guests — Aliya Rahman — was also allegedly disruptive at the event, with her being arrested by Capitol Police.

Blitzer noted on Wednesday that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) had advised Democratic lawmakers to either not attend Trump’s speech or to silently protest at the event.

“Should you have just boycotted the address? And do you think you violated the guidelines set out by your own leader?” Blitzer asked Omar.

Omar called her behavior “unavoidable” in light of Good and Pretti’s deaths.

“No, I think it was really unavoidable. The president talked about protecting Americans, and I just had to remind him that his administration was responsible for killing two of my constituents,” the congresswoman said.

Blitzer asked yet again if she had regret over the incident, noting Democrats have criticized Republican lawmakers for such behavior in the past.

“Many members of your Democratic Party criticized their Republican counterparts when they interrupted President [Joe] Biden’s State of the Union address, as a lot of us remember. Do you have any regrets at all about the interaction we played between you and President Trump just last night?” he asked.

“I do not,” Omar declared. “And I think many people look at that moment when the president says it is our responsibility to protect Americans, and he does not acknowledge the fact that two Americans, two of my constituents, two of our neighbors, were killed. And it was important for me to just remind the American people that the president and his administration was responsible for killing two American citizens.”

Blitzer stuck to the rule of three and asked yet again if Omar would do anything differently in “hindsight,” like simply boycott the event.

The congresswoman said:

I brought four Minnesotans as guests for the Minnesota delegation. It was important for us to be there to bear witness, to hold the space for our constituents that have lived through an occupation from federal law enforcement, that have been terrorized, that have seen our neighbors been killed and traumatized in so many ways.

And so, no, I think it was really important for my constituents to see me there. It was really important to my constituents to hear that I was reminding the president that Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed under this administration.

Watch above via CNN.

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Zachary Leeman covered pop culture and politics at outlets such as Breitbart, LifeZette, BizPac Review, HollywoodinToto, and others. He is the author of the novel Nigh. He joined Mediaite in 2022.