By Aunt America
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed here are those of the authors. View more opinions on ScoonTV
Plugging Ilhan Omar and “Somalia” into Google will get you a slingshot of results, pinging between “Republicans smear/slam/swipe/seize” and “strong/first/fighting/advocate.” She has rapidly become a push-pull figure in modern politics, which means that you can find out all about her online, and then, depending on your ideological silo, either elevate her as an embodiment of the American dream or an existential threat who must be deported immediately.
For example, in a January speech in 2024, Omar was quoted as saying she was “Somalian first.” However, she was discussing a complicated international situation between Somaliland and Ethiopia, and translators at Minnesota Reformer insisted that what she actually meant was “We are people who know that they are Somali and Muslim.”
What did she really say? Are you fluent in Somali with a deep understanding of the complex international situation between Somaliland and Ethiopia? It’s a safe bet that 99.99% of people commenting on the topic are not. And that’s the problem: The internet firehose is so fast and so strong that the chances of ferreting out the truth about Omar are a perilous job.
Let’s get to the marquee tale. Did she really marry her brother in an attempt to commit immigration fraud? Well, according to Wikipedia, the issue doesn’t even exist. You can’t even find the words “brother” in her Wikipedia entry (at the moment, anyway), although you’ll find plenty of maybe/maybe not statements about antisemitism.
So normies in search of actual information about the US House representative for the fifth Congressional district from Minnesota– assuming they have 1) even heard of Ilhan Omar and 2) care to check on what she says, thinks, and does. On the surface, it’s easy to declare Omar as the left’s version of Donald Trump, but that doesn’t quite fit– voters might have a stout view about the President, but they’ve mostly heard of him. You’re not going to walk into Tuesday Trivia Night at Buckethead’s catching the latest on-dit about Omar.
Not so online, where the real battles of democracy are bubbling. The case of Ilhan Omar is 2025 politics in miniature; if you walk the red light district of Hollywood for ugly people, even as a spectator, you’ll have heard of her and have a very, very strong opinion about her. She’s not especially memeable, but people who can name both their senators will pretty much know who she is.
Typical Americans merely going about their lives just trying to get their Amazon packages out of the rain and away from porch pirates, however, likely don’t particularly care that Ilhan Omar was misquoted on the matter of “Somalian first,” because they never heard that she might have said “Somalian first” to begin with.
Is Omar as radical as she seems? Well, again, that depends on where you’re standing. She’s got a solid F on the Liberty Score meter– a flat 22%– but that’s to be expected when a person speaks fluent Blue:
We recognize how these folks are deeply invested in stopping a progressive, Black, Muslim, hijab-wearing, immigrant woman…We know these people are part of systems that have historically been disturbingly motivated to silence, discredit, and dehumanize influencers who threaten the establishment.
Who were the “these people” doing the discrediting? That infamous organ of conservative thought, The Minnesota Star-Review.
Comments such as these are possibly why Omar’s supposed Somali favoritism and brother marrying haven’t truly broken into the mainstream of U.S. attention. Politicos will immediately sniff out either the fellow travelerism or the wicked Marxism in that statement, but it’s not the sort of proclamation that fights its way above the online noise to most Facebook feeds. “They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats of the people that live there,” though? That’ll get your attention.
All that noise leaves one wondering if a brighter spotlight on Omar would clarify anything or just crank up the fog machine. Perhaps more national attention would force further actual information about her, but that’s where her story gets slippery– as a refugee from war-torn Somalia, definitive proof/disproving moments about her past are tough to find. She had provided a sensible enough timeline to prove that she’s not a bigamist… except for jointly filing for taxes with Husband #2 while still legally married to Husband #1. Well, that’s probably easily explained away as relationships, but not necessarily marriage licenses overlapping, but when it comes to accusations that she married her brother… neither of them has a birth certificate to present.
And there are claims of a DNA match between Omar and her husband… but they’re easily dismissible as a Marty Povich-style gotcha skim from a straw and a cigarette butt rather than taking place in a lab-controlled, third-party setting.
What are you gonna do?
Other members of Congress are more immediately recognizable or have longer service. Where did all this attention and animus towards Ilhan Omar come from? Why does she get a reflexive kick she does from the right?
Her supporters would argue that her race, sex, and religion all conspire against her, but Omar was dehumanizing her opponents before dehumanization was cool on the left. A full six years before the assassination of Charlie Kirk, she was casually announcing that Donald Trump was not, in fact, human, stating that there was no comparing President Barack Obama to Trump since “one is human and the other is really not.” It was not the most concilatory way to introduce herself to a nation just beginning to get furious at its other half.
Liberals of Omar’s stripe, however, tend to pride themselves on not getting along. In 2012, she stated on (then) Twitter, “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” She deleted the tweet, but, well– it was out there.
In an era when so much focus is on illegal immigration, it’s easy to copy-paste such exotic allegations on Omar, who has just enough circumstantial evidence against her to leave the question open. It might seem like an overreach, but then again, this is the same nation that hired an illegal alien with a rap sheet as a school superintendent… in Iowa. (In case you’re wondering, his criminal record included criminal possession of narcotics with intent to sell, criminal possession of a forged instrument, and reckless driving.)
So maybe the issue conservatives might have with Ilhan Omar isn’t that she necessarily chooses Somalia over the United States, but rather a vision of the nation that sounds globalist, socialist, and flat undesirable to red ears. Her position on the outer left of the party– she’s criticized Barack Obama as not being sufficiently in the liberal pillar of defunding police forces– means that her perceived anti-Americanism is easily merged with her Somali heritage.
But with the general tide turning towards Trump policies, even internationally, Omar might have lost any political ground she’s gained within the House. And indeed, with the Justice Department out to purge voter rolls in Minnesota while attempting to dismantle the state’s sanctuary policies, she could find herself fighting for her own seat.
Is Ilhan Omar from and of Somalia? Certainly. But is it party, ideology, or self that she truly loves? Ultimately, Omar looks and talks about a view of America that isn’t in fashion with the current presidential administration. And that is perhaps her greatest transgression when you parse through all the words and vitriol.
Curtis Scoon is the founder of ScoonTv.com Download the ScoonTv App to join our weekly livestream every Tuesday @ 8pm EST! Support true independent media. Become a VIP member www.scoontv.com/vip-signup/ and download the ScoonTv App from your App Store.
