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Tucker Carlson
- Congresswoman Ilhan Omar clapped back at Fox News host Tucker Carlson for a segment on his show Tuesday night that called her "living proof" of the dangers of immigration.
- In the Tuesday night segment, Carlson said, "So be grateful for Ilhan Omar, annoying as she is. She's a living fire alarm, a warning to the rest of us. We better change our immigration system immediately or else."
- Carlson was specifically discussing a Washington Post feature on Omar, who came to America as a child refugee from Somalia with her father, and was elected to Congress from Minnesota last year.
- "Not gonna lie, it's kinda fun watching a racist fool like this weeping about my presence in Congress," Omar tweeted.
- She added: "No lies will stamp out my love for this country or my resolve to make our union more perfect. They will just have to get used to calling me Congresswoman!"
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Congresswoman Ilhan Omar clapped back at Fox News host Tucker Carlson for a segment on his show Tuesday night slamming her as ungrateful and calling her "living proof" of the dangers of immigration.
Carlson was specifically discussing a Washington Post feature on Omar, who came to America as a refugee from Somalia with her father as a child, and was elected to Congress from Minnesota last year after serving as a state representative.
The Post story said that in "Omar's version... America wasn't a meritocracy that helped her attend college or vaulted her into Congress. It was the country that had failed to live up to its founding ideals, a place that has disappointed her and so many immigrants, refugees, and minorities like her."
In talking about the article, Carlson laid into Omar as not sufficiently grateful for the safety and opportunities America extended her, and used the Post story to make an argument that Omar's presence in Congress represented the perils of immigration.
"She has undisguised contempt for the United States and for its people," Carlson said. "That should worry you, not just because Omar is a sitting member of congress. Ilhan Omar is living proof that the way we practice immigration has become dangerous to this country."
Read more: Tucker Carlson says immigrants have 'plundered' the US and want to steal Americans' wealth
After clips of Carlson's segment made the rounds on the Internet, Omar, who boasts over a million followers on Twitter, hit back at Carlson in a tweet.
"Not gonna lie, it's kinda fun watching a racist fool like this weeping about my presence in Congress," Omar tweeted."No lies will stamp out my love for this country or my resolve to make our union more perfect. They will just have to get used to calling me Congresswoman!"
Omar is one the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress. She has made controversial statements in her short time in office - including saying some Americans have an "allegiance" to Israel, a remark that many took as anti-Semitic - and has been vocal when she's felt that America's "promise" of justice for all isn't being kept, but she has never expressed hatred for Americans.
In that segment, Carlson went on to decry immigration generally, charging that, "Some of the very people we try hardest to help have come to hate us passionately. Maybe that is our fault for asking too little of our immigrants... or maybe the problem is deeper than that. Maybe we are importing people from places whose values are simply antithetical to ours."
He added: "So be grateful for Ilhan Omar, annoying as she is. She's a living fire alarm, a warning to the rest of us. We better change our immigration system immediately or else."
Read more:
A complete timeline of the escalating war of words between Trump and Ilhan Omar
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