“Liar-in-Chief”: Rep. Ilhan Omar Slams Trump’s SOTU Remarks on Border, Venezuela, Israel & More

Powerful and true! — Molly

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, President Trump called for bipartisan unity while he attacked Democrats and the Robert Mueller investigation, denounced efforts to expand abortion rights in Virginia and New York, attacked immigrants and reiterated his demand for a border wall—with no mention of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, which delayed his address by a week. Women in Congress wore all white to the speech in a nod to the movement for women’s suffrage. After the address, former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams made history, becoming the first African-American woman to give the Democratic response. We’re joined by Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, the first Somali American elected to the House of Representatives and one of the first Muslim women in Congress. Her guest at last night’s presidential address was a Liberian woman who fled to Minnesota in 2000 due to civil war and is now facing the threat of deportation from the United States.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: In his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, President Trump called for bipartisan unity while he attacked Democrats and the Robert Mueller investigation.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: An economic miracle is taking place in the United States, and the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics or ridiculous partisan investigations. If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation. It just doesn’t work that way.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: The president spent much of his speech focused on the southern border. He repeated his vow to build a border wall.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: As we speak, large organized caravans are on the march to the United States. We have just heard that Mexican cities, in order to remove the illegal immigrants from their communities, are getting trucks and buses to bring them up to our country in areas where there is little border protection. I have ordered another 3,750 troops to our southern border to prepare for this tremendous onslaught. This is a moral issue. The lawless state of our southern border is a threat to the safety, security and financial well-being of all America....

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country...

AMY GOODMAN: That’s President Trump, speaking at his State of the Union address, the camera focusing in on Bernie Sanders as he spoke. Congressmember Ilhan Omar, if you could respond on both of those issues, on Venezuela and socialism?

REP. ILHAN OMAR: The president seems to be divorced from reality, really. We saw that when he made the comment in celebrating the wave of new members of Congress who are women. He didn’t seem to recognize that most of us got elected in resisting his disastrous policies and steering our country into the right direction.

He also seems to be divorced from reality when we’re talking about the situation that’s unfolding in Venezuela. You know, we understand that there is a crisis, and we believe in furthering democracy, but it is really important that we caution ourselves from getting involved and further—furthering suffering in countries like Venezuela. When he talks about the humanitarian crisis, when he talks about the need for the people of Venezuela to have self-determination, you know, I think back to what’s happening in Saudi Arabia-led war in Yemen, that the United States is assisting, that is the worst humanitarian crisis. Over 800,000 people have faced starvation. And so, when we see this president make remarks, it really becomes easily visible to see how divorced he truly is from reality.

I remember that most of us were laughing when he made the comment around socialism. What we advocate for, what Bernie, myself, you know, Alexandria, Rashida, what we advocate for, is an America that is prosperous, an America that makes sure that everybody has access to jobs, everybody has access to housing, everybody has access to healthcare, that we don’t have an America where people are dying because they can’t afford insulin, that we don’t have an America where people are dying because they don’t have a home and they’re freezing outside, and an America where we deal with our homeless crises.

And so, when I hear him speak, there is a reality that he seems to be clearly divorced. I don’t know if he knows how popular Medicare for all is. I don’t know if he understands how popular freeing students from the shackles of debt is. I don’t know if he understands how popular it is for us to critically address climate change. So, clearly, clearly, he lacks leadership, and it’s going to be really important for the next year for us to find someone who can lead our nation into prosperity and who is not going to be a liar-in-chief in the White House.

For the full transcript or to watch the full video interview, please go here: https://www.democracynow.org/2019/2/6/liar_in_chief_rep_ilhan_omar?fbclid=IwAR0Z2rn9SQ5i1JYKTNIb9N2EY7ibc2TyYxS0kaXJbJVUxHgUyvbxvzwGTD8