JD Vance Accuses Ilhan Omar of ‘Actually Genocidal Language’ While Sharing a 2018 Clip Recirculated By MAGA Influencers
Press Association via AP Images
Vice President JD Vance attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) using inflammatory rhetoric on Monday, sharing a 2018 clip and accusing the House Democrat of using “actually genocidal language.”
Vance shared a post from the controversial “LibsofTikTok” account that was captioned: “Our country should be more fearful of White men because they are causing most of the deaths within this country” – Ilhan Omar.
Vance responded to the clip and wrote, “This isn’t just sick; it’s actually genocidal language. What a disgrace this person is.” The clip, from before Omar was running for Congress, was widely shared over the week in MAGA crowds, including by Trump ally and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer — who once described herself as a “proud Islamophobe.”
The 24-second clip Vance commented on is from a February 2018 Al Jazeera interview Omar did with Mehdi Hasan. The same clip has been used to attack Omar from as far back as 2019, which resulted in a PolitiFact fact-check at the time – in response to then-Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) sharing the clip.
PolitiFact’s Amy Sherman reported at the time that while Omar clearly does say the quote, “It helps to watch Omar’s full 10-minute interview to understand her quote in context.”
Below is the full context for Omar’s quote:
Hasan: “A lot of conservatives in particular would say that the rise of Islamophobia is the result not of hate but of fear — a legitimate fear they say of ‘jihadist terrorism’ whether it’s Fort Hood or San Bernandino or the recent truck attack in New York. What do you say to them?”
Omar: “I would say our country should be more fearful of white men across our country, because they are actually causing most of the deaths within this country. And so if fear was the driving force of policies to keep America safe, Americans safe inside of this country, we should be profiling, monitoring and creating policies to fight the radicalization of white men.”
Hasan: “But most of the funding and attention even under Obama obviously went toward Muslim communities — one of those communities is in Minnesota, your state, the Somali American community in Minnesota where I think over past few years more than 20 young Somali Americans have left to go and fight for Isil or Al Shabab or one of these ‘jihadist groups’ abroad. That’s a real threat, obviously nobody is pretending it’s not a threat. So what do you do about it?”
Omar: “I think, like I said, the focus of our policies should be about keeping Americans safe, keeping us domestically safe, and where we actually find a solution is looking at our foreign policy, looking at how we are engaging with the members of these communities and the kind of rhetoric, right, that is being spewed out of leaders within our city halls, within our state capitals and within our nation’s capital.”
Hasan: “Some would say that is true, there is really bad rhetoric coming from politicians, security leaders, etc., but also a lot of bad rhetoric coming from Muslim community leaders, imams, etc. Is that fair?”
Omar: “I think both of those statements could be true. And I think it just goes to show what happens when you have segments within communities that are using fear and hate to mobilize their base, and it is important for us to actually have a conversation about what kind of communities we are trying to build and what this nation actually stands for.”
Watch the full clip above.
