Transcripts For CSPAN2 Washington Post Discussion With Rep.

CSPAN2 Washington Post Discussion With Rep. Ilhan Omar July 11, 2024

Rrupting. I would offer another threesome to characterizeyour remarks. Cont, comprehensive and compelling. This is i think the best 25 minute characterization of where we are at and where we must go. Next the Washington Post talking with congressman ilhan omar about the 20 20 election and progressive legislative goals for the congress. Live here on cspan2. The real America First agenda is one that puts people first. Did morning, im an opinion writer for the washinon post and welcome to Washington Post lies. It is also a live recording of my host opini podcast take up. My guess today was just reelected to her second term in the us house representatives. She is on was woman ilhan omar ominnesotas fifth congressional district. Thanks for coming on the podcast. Ts so great to be here with y jonathan. Sold last we talked itas yesterday, i asked you for ur reaction to being able to say the words pridentelect biden and your response to me was really interesting. You said and correct m i also want you to expd on this, you said that it would be great r you to nothave to elain to your daughter why the present of the United States was saying mean thingsabout yo. So i dont know if you remeer this jonathan but the president when he was runng for president , came to minnesota to before the 2016 election. And basically went on attack against somali immigrants, Somali Refugees and for me, and the community that i represent for my children, its been a full year assault on everything we stand for. Our basic identity as american refugees in this country. So ive hamany long days, many nights fighting to explain to my youngest child who is now eight, my two older ones so to absorb and contextualize what is contained in the political discourse in this country but for her its been really challenging for us to actually have that. I think for a lot of our kids , about the president and they hear about some one theyre supposed to look up to as aeader. And theres a lot of respect for the presidency we tried to instill in them and to have someone denigrate that as the president and, thats been really challenging. Its one thing to the, to have someone attack your community writ large. Its another thing when someone is the president of the United States and he is directly attacking you. I name, personally. How has that felt . On a personal level, i have gotten accustomed to standing up to bullies in my life and so on a personal level it hasnt really impacted me, having my children be exposed to it and you know, for the last two months of this election cycle , waking up every single morning to messages from my siblings asking if i was safe because he chose to see about me every single ballot, didnt really matter where he was. Sometimes multiple times in a day. As he held his rally through the country. And i thought a lot about in the last two years, what that attack on me admit for the people who see themselves in me. Whether it is muslims, whether it is black women, whether it is,refugees. People who are aspiring to be leaders in our country and many who want to live in an Inclusive Society and create progress for our country. Its really something to analyze and understand and to reckon with. Because as i said, when i first came to the United States, in the school i remember getting a letter of recognition from then president clinton and i remember reading this letter and you know, i about it in mybook. My father sort of was really proud of his letter. This i didnt delete about who was president or how, but to my father was an acceptance of our existence in this country. It was sort of another welcoming letter because we get a welcoming letter when you arrive here as a refugee. And that is what a president issupposed to be a representative of. They are a leader of the nation. They are supposed to act as if they are there president and to have now had four years of a president who has occupied the white house, has not seen himself as a leader all the people in thiscountry , who has not extended a welcoming hand to every Single Person is you know, really sad and depressing and disheartening and the day that it was announced that he lost the reelection, i proceeded to my now deceased father passed away because of complications that the president did not believe in evening analogy, that we did it. He will no longer be president of the United States and the country that he loved will come back to being an inclusive country. That our strength and our diversity. [inaudible] my condolences on the passing of your father. Thattacks on the president , on you directly and personally d specifically also had to do wh his reelection sategy, just jamminup the base around the country part of his plan try to win minnesota which heery narrowly lost, it didnt work. One could say that it didnt work because minnesota is traditionally a Democratic State but do you think that the attacks on you bacto denmark. Did in that respect not just attacks on me, every single country backfired. Black women who have been bjected to vitriol, have shown up in mass numbers to rebuke this presidey and to change the course in this country. Young people had shown up in mass numbers to say we want a future that is brighter than the darkness that you have brought. And since, people who just got their citizenship showed up and said this is going to be an inclusive country and a place for all of us and were going to be part of the process of creating. And minnesota is by and large showed up in numbers they had not for a presidency in a long time to say you are not going to use our seats to spread your message of hate and division in this country. We are not only going to not elect you but we are going to show the country what it means to stand up toa bully like you. So President Trump lost minnesota. But when it comes to the house ofrepresentatives , republicans, democrats didnt win the seats that they thought they were going to win and in fact publicans and not gaining seats. And we will find out next month whether republicans will take control of the senate but why do you think that is. Even though president elect joe biden won the popular vote, one more than counts more than 5 million votes and President Trump, why dont you think president elect biden and his democrats and the coattails to go from winning the white house to expanding the democratic majority in the house . Elections are the norm, in minnesota we have a tradition people people swing their ballotsand youve seen that happen throughout the country. And i also think know, in many cases, there was so much focus, especially for me i didnt even talk to a Single Person, doing my general election, i was so much focus in defeating trump making sure biden one, remaining a onepoint follower of the one 5 million pence to change our constituents and thats where we end up having like the highest turnout in our district. And i think for a lot of my colleagues, they expressed how there was a lot of concentration whether it was volunteers, the nations asked attention on sending trump packing and for a lot of, that in itself was the degree we were after. I will say that campaigning during a pandemic really wasnt something that a lot of people were preparedfor. I had to fight to establish and hire a canvassing team. I know my colleagues did not do that. So there are a lot of challenges that happen when you are not having that one on one facetoface conversation with constituents. When republicans continue to expand their ground, democrats did not. One of the things that came up through this caucus phone call after the election apparently it got very heated, one of the things that your congressional colleague new york congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez said hammering home the fact that democrats are way behind to digital campaigning and having an online presence. Im just wondering one, your take on that and two for the rejoinder that came from congresswoman ellis islam can of michigan in a profile that i read where she said i think shes better informed speaking about her own district. Maybe more than nine percent of her district is on twitter but thats about how much of mine is on twitter and she goes on to say he added a robust Digital Program but id like to see her ads on video screen, did she have those . That were a big part of what we invested in because my voters were still going to get cast. Im bringing all this up because im wondering this rift that appears to be there , that is there between the progressive wing of which you are strongly identified and the socalled moderate wing of the party are in conflict, or at loggerheads. Are we making too much of this is the Democratic Caucus really in danger of leaving aside the senate, possibly in 2022 losing the majority in the house . So i think its important for people to have fluency in the people they seek to represent whether it is their challenges or engaging with them area some people will say focus on constituent services. Its important which we all understand how valuable that is to serving your constituents but when youre running for the election, or running for the first time, utilizing every form of communication, its essential to winning your election. And so the thing that Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, myself and rashida while we ran our primaries because we were all challenged in the primary, is that during covid, you have to utilize Digital Strategy and an aggressive Digital Strategy to get your message out to your constituents. And that means also being part of the work that you do going forward. And i think what slot can is saying is something weve been saying. We understand that the Democratic Caucus is a bit big tent. We understand there are differences in constituents that we serve. Our party is unique in that regard. We are not monolithic in the constituents that we have and the democratic stick constituents. But we also permit that says we are the party of the people so prioritizing the needs of people is something that we need to be unified whether it is talking about how to address social and economic interactions that people have for decades. Or whether it is figuring out how to have a cohesive message that speaks to who we are as a caucus. What we are asking our counties to do is to continue to have that conversation because when we are not having conversations with the people d we are having conversations about our divisions , the republicans win. I was going to ask, im wondering is it the message, the mode of the message that is a problem for the democrator the Democratic Party or is this the message itself. You think thathe reason why democrats did not gaining seats that they wanted to and some democratimembers of congress were not reelected was because their constituents, the voters didntike the message, didnt like the policies that they were running on. The responsibility is on the candidates themselves, figuring out what messages work and to indicate with the people they represent. Obviously we have a message as democrats about what it means to address the needs of the american people. But tailoring that message to the people that you serve in the way that it is suitable is something you only understand as a candidate whos running in that district. And you fall short of that, that falls on you. It doesnt fall on the candidates thats running across the country. For a seat and messaging to a different constituency and the one that you serve. And so our challenge is figuring out how we run the 21st century campaign. That is not only about messaging, its about how are you going to be in front of people, getting your message to them whether it is door knocking or digital ads. Being on tv. Its asking questions i never imagined that i would run tv ads in my primary race, i had to run the ad thats happening. Without unrstanding what is going to take for you to win. And for someone who had 17 miion ballots against them, by democrats and republicans, im here because i figured out how to have proper ways to engage in my constituency area i can win the votes of my election primary and the general. And starting to keep harping on the rift between the progressive wing and the moderate wing but are there areas. This is basically from the republicans, i think internally, as a family we might have our discussions but the rift is not as strong as it is made out to be. And i take your point because as i was listening and you talked about the nuance that candidates pending on your district need to employ while running for reelection, thats imminently reasonable and im sitting here trying to understand what is it, and my making a thing of the rift . Lets just leave that aside. Ac this is the last point that i think often times when people lose or feel challenged, i remember getting a primary calendar, i could blame every Single Person on the democratic side who had asked me since congress and say this is why i am a democratic calendar, i believe the police donated my primary opponent. I can blame the governors, the democratic governors who went with my primary opponent or i can say its a chlenge and i need to overcome because thats blinking doesnt serve me for my psyche. Im better at thinking about how to provide a positive message for my constituents so that i can bring them back and win this election and i think about the different ads that ive seen for either slatkin or abigail steinberger or even conor lamb and i think these ads have a lot to do about your history. They had a lot to do with the fact that you chose to post pictures with people who had police science, they had a lot to do with the way in which you conducted yourself and the shortcomings that you have read and so you n continue to blame people across the country for being there constituents for you can say i overcome all of the allenges and i won my election. Now heres everybody can overcome their challenges and win the election because thats something that people can work from an act as the optimist in the room i am always looking at how do we positively move forward instead of looking back and thinking about what we can try to get back on and not allow for ourselves to be in positions to better serve our communities. So then you invoke your name, congresswoman december as the parties on the call was angry, very angry about the impact of clothes, the fund the police but also the use of the word socialism within the party, does not have a point on that lesson . Negative impacts those two things had on democratic races around thecountry. Ive not seen a single analysis to point to a Research Data point that is actually something that happens. If you look at the ads that were run against her, it had to do with who she was teaching in saudi arabia that was supposed to be a terrified flight or Something Like that. You can look at ads across the country where they were using their votes with pelosi against them. You think about the two senate races right now in georgia, its about schumer and something that he said about changing our country and changing the world. There are so many lies and smears at the republicans engaged in have had impact on races and to blame a movement that has shown for us in the most aggressive way to deliver a decisive victory for president , first president elect biden is really shameful and something that i cant even believe my democratic colleagues are doing area. Lets talk about your district, what are your priorities with your constituents in minnesota district in your next term. Our priorities are one, trying to figure out how we help the president by the and Harris Administration to curb the spread of the virus. Minnesota is experiencing a surge and its currently dealing with the impact of this pandemic and personal way. How do we bring our untry back from the brink of financial crisis. Dealing with the looming election crisis that we have in the crisis that preceded this, debt. You know, dealing with Climate Crisis that we have. And figuring out why someone recognizes culture as a human right, how do we make sure as americans we have healthcare. And kim, this conversation is so great and we arerunning out of time. Two questions i need to ask you before we go to your on the Foreign Affairs committee and im wondering how you balance the desire to talk about israel and palestine open debate in this country about our support of israel which is a very real sensitivity of jewish people in mind. As we deal with the country israel, and you know, its continued place in the middle east and impact on our foreign policy, it needs to be a conversation that we have. On the policy level. In trying to maybe just how we talk about a conflict that doesnt really confuse two parties that are operating on equal footing. We dont have full recognition for statehood, for policy and what does it mean for us to advocate for human rights and advocate for the rights of people and how we continue to have a conversation on statehood for people who have experienced injustice for so long. You know, Vice President elect harris has broken through, barriers, a ton of glass ceilings just by being elected Vice President elect of the United States, shes the first woman. She is the first person of color to be Vice President , shes first black woman, first s. Asian woman and i was wondering if you could take a step back and just talk about what it means to have the incoming Vice President from the United States the person of color, be someone who you can look at and see your reflection. Shes also the first daughter of immigrants to ascend to the vice presidency. We watched her come on stage, my daughter her first thoughts were she looks like me, mama. And theres this famous quote that i would constantly repeat, you cant beat what you cant see for so many of our daughters, theyre going to get an opportunity themselves. In that position. And to know that no limitation on their ability ascend to a powerful position like

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