Fox News host Tucker Carlson ended his primetime program on Tuesday night by taking aim at Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), claiming the Somalia-born congresswoman despises America and is “living proof” that America’s immigration policies are “dangerous.”
Omar, one of the first two Muslim women in the House of Representatives, has long been targeted by Carlson, who has devoted numerous segments to calling the progressive lawmaker “ungrateful” and a “symbol of America's failed immigration policies.”
This time, however, the Fox News star took his anti-Omar stance even further.
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“Ilhan Omar has an awful lot to be grateful for, but she isn't grateful, not at all,” Carlson said. “After everything America has done for Omar and for her family, she hates this country more than ever.”
Referencing a recent Washington Post profile on the freshman representative, the conservative commentator said the piece showed that Omar was “enraged” by America and that she has “undisguised contempt for the United States and for its people.”
“That should worry you, and not just because Omar is now a sitting member of Congress,” Carlson warned his viewers. “Ilhan Omar is living proof that the way we practice immigration has become dangerous to this country.”
The anti-immigration host went on to claim that the immigration system is now “undermining” the country because “some of the very people we try hardest to help have come to hate us passionately.”
Stating that it is possibly American citizens’ fault for not having the self-confidence to “make them assimilate,” Carlson then wondered if the “problem is deeper than that—maybe we are importing people from places whose values are simply antithetical to ours.”
After insisting that current immigration is “unsustainable” and that no country can “expect to survive” when it imports “large numbers of people who hate it,” Carlson took one final parting shot at Omar.
“So, be grateful for Ilhan Omar, annoying as she is,” he concluded. “She's a living fire alarm, a warning to the rest of us that we better change our immigration system immediately, or else.”
The Minnesota lawmaker, meanwhile, has been the at the receiving end of death threats almost since she first entered Congress, largely due to right-wing attacks that have then been amplified by members of Congress and the president.
Shortly after the segment aired, Omar took to Twitter to fire back at the Fox News host.
“Not gonna lie, it’s kinda fun watching a racist fool like this weeping about my presence in Congress,” she wrote. “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 went on to tweet on Wednesday that “advertisers should not be underwriting hate speech” on Fox News. The comment prompted a swift reaction from the network, with Justin Wells, Senior Executive Producer of FOX News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight issuing the following statement: “Anyone who values democracy and free expression should be gravely concerned when members of Congress demand that their critics be silenced. Tucker will address this on tonight’s show.”
