Welcome back to the show.
Oh, thank you so much for having me back.
It's, uh, been a long time since you were last here,
and you have done a lot since then.
-Congratulations... -Thank you.
...at, uh, making your way into Congress.
-That is exciting. -It's been a long journey.
It has been a long journey,
and it has been a fruitful journey, as well.
Um, people love throwing "the first" at you.
Do-do you ever get tired
of having to be the first of everything?
We could go, "first refugee, first Somali woman,
first woman of color to represent Minnesota."
It's just like, "First, first, first, first, first, first."
Sometimes people just add extra "firsts"
that are not real to just...
-It becomes a thing. Yeah, yeah. -"First woman named 'Ilhan'
-to be in Cong..." Yes, yes. -Right.
Um, but-but you are a trailblazer.
I mean, just the hijab alone is something
that fundamentally changed what Congress was.
There was a ban on the hijab for,
I think it was over 100 years, apparently?
187 years.
I-I... And that-that changed because of you.
-Yeah. -Was there... was there, like, backlash?
Does anyone, like, look at you and go...?
Does anyone say anything about that,
or was everyone like, "Yeah, yeah, this makes sense"?
I mean, so, it's interesting, 'cause there was a-a ban
-on hats and headwear. -Oh.
And what people didn't realize is that it...
it made it unconstitutional to apply it to me,
because we are supposed to have religious liberty
-in this country. -Right.
And so, um, it would have
applied a-a religious test,
and, so, lifting it
is just upholding our constitution.
And people are like,
"Oh, they did her a favor, and all of these people
-are changing things for her." -Right, right, right.
And it's, like, no, we're just following the constitution.
It does... it does feel like...
(applause and cheering)
It does...
It does feel like there is a certain tension
around the freshman group of congress people
who have come in, you know, after these midterms.
You know, you feel a lot of the old guard,
especially on the right, terrified of the group.
You know, it's yourself, it's Ocasio-Cortez,
it's Rashida Tlaib. Like, you have these people
where everyone's just going like,
"They're troublemakers, they're here to cause chaos."
-Yeah. -Are you there to cause chaos?
I mean, they could hear us coming from afar, and I...
-(applause and cheering) -And I... and I really believe it.
You know, I mean, all of us were ready
and are still ready to throw down
on behalf of the American people.
We're ready to throw down and make sure
that we're taking care of health care once and for all...
-Right. -...and that we're making sure
to get rid of, uh, for-profit prisons,
and that we're, um, going to cancel out student debt
-and free young people from... -(applause and cheering)
...right, like, the shackles of debt.
-Wow. -And so...
Trump and, um, and the Republicans
could see us coming, and so they shut down the government,
and they ended up being this really interestingly
bizarrely scripted scene from, like, the House of Cards.
-Yes. -Um, except he wasn't as entertaining
or as strategic as Frank Underwood.
And-and so we... we're here, like, excited to get sworn in
into this historic-- right?-- historic Congress,
and we came into another bizarre history,
-Right. -because the shutdown we walked into
was the first shutdown, not only, like, the longest,
but the first shutdown that was orchestrated
-by a president of this country. -Oh, that's interesting. Right.
And, you know, you and I come from foreign countries,
-Yes. -and so in many of the foreign countries
around the world, if a president or a prime minister
was to shut down government,
there would probably be a vote of no confidence.
-Mm-hmm. -He would no longer be president.
That's interesting.
-(cheering, applause) -Right?
And we're... and we're sitting here,
and we're not holding him accountable
for shutting down the government for 35 days and getting nothing
-out of it. -It does... it does seem like
Trump operates, um, under, you know, a set of rules
that no one else does, and-and that's...
-He's delusional. That's why. -(laughter)
And you haven't been afraid to call him out on that.
But let's talk about some of those policies
-that you spoke about. -Mm-hmm.
One of the biggest criticisms that, you know,
you always hear leveled against you,
and the group of freshmen who have come in, generally,
is that people go: "Oh, these are lofty ambitions
"that can't be achieved.
"America doesn't have the money to cancel student debt.
"America doesn't have the money for Medicare for all.
American just doesn't have the money."
How would you propose getting the money
to pay for these amazing programs?
America has money.
Money isn't... We don't have a problem of scarcity, really.
What we have is a problem of moral courage. Right?
-Our budgets really are supposed to be... -(applause)
our budgets are supposed to be, uh, an example of...
-of our moral values. -Right.
And so, you know, this is why I got on the Budget Committee,
'cause I'm excited to make sure that we have a budget
-that's reflective of our values. -(cheering, applause)
And so what we need to do is we need to make sure
that we are prioritizing and funding policies
that create positive impact in people's day-to-day lives.
-Mm-hmm. -We have been...
prioritizing in enriching the wealthy.
We have given in to, um...
caving in-- right?-- like, to the powers of special interests,
-Right. -and so we need to make sure
that we're holding special interests accountable,
that we're getting money out of politics,
that we are, uh, taxing... the uber rich.
-Right. -Um, that the one percent
gets to pay their fair share.
-Right. -Um, so this is...
this is why we're proposing a marginal tax rate.
We want to make sure that the American people
recognize government as one
that works for them
and works on behalf of their interests.
If you...
(cheers and applause)
If you've been following the shutdown,
for most people, the story has been that, um,
Democrats and Republicans are now working on a plan
to fund border security.
And, you know, you listen to Nancy Pelosi speak,
and it seems like the biggest sticking point
is really the wall, but a lot of people agree
on the basic fundamentals of giving more money
to the border, to, you know,
for border security and improving that.
But yourself and a few of your freshmen colleagues
have come out, and you wrote a letter saying no,
-we should cut funding to these programs. -Mm-hmm.
That's a really controversial stance to take. Why?
I mean, because what we have been doing
is that we've just had slush funds
to fund private detention centers
for young kids who are being put in cages.
That is, that is not in line with our values.
We want to make sure that every single dollar that we have,
um, is used to actually care,
and provide something that is in line with our values.
We have-- You know, Minnesota, like, that's where I come from--
-It's negative 60 degrees yesterday. -Mm-hmm.
We have a homeless crisis.
We have people who are freezing
And what we can do with the money that we have
is make sure that we're investing $20 billion
in providing homes to our homeless folks.
That would get rid of homelessness in this country.
(applause)
What we can do is that we can stop
the constant increase of our defense budget.
Since 9/11, it increased nearly 50%.
We have not had that high of an increase
in education funding; we haven't had that kind
of increase in health care funding, right?
We don't invest in the things that actually,
positively impact people.
But we are willing to invest in things
that give contracts to, uh,
companies and corporations that benefit
from our struggles and our pains.
And that's not gonna happen under our watch.
Let me ask you this.
You, um... -(cheers and applause)
You're someone who has been very outspoken.
You know, you've always spoken your mind,
you've always spoken directly to people, voters,
your colleagues, etcetera.
And recently, you've come under fire for a few
of your previous comments.
-Um... Yeah. -Recently. (laughs)
-But, I mean, well, most recently. -It's constant.
-You know, there was a, -It's constant.
there was a tweet that you had a while ago,
criticizing Israel and what, you know,
how they're handling the crisis in Palestine and in Gaza.
And you said, you know,
Israel is hypnotizing the world with what they're doing.
You apologized after that for-- And what you said
was really interesting to me in the apology.
You said, I apologize for focusing
on the semantic argument
-and clarifying my comments. -Mm-hmm.
And-- but I-I apologize
for not making people understand that I was completely
not trying to be anti-Semitic, and not standing up
-and fighting against that anti-Semitism. -Right.
Because, I mean, you know, people who may not know,
but the-the idea
of Jewish people hypnotizing anyone
is part of the stigma
-that led to many of them, you know... -Yeah.
The Holocaust and many of the hate crimes against them.
You apologized for that,
-but you've still stood fast -But...
with your criticism of Israel.
You-you still criticize people that you don't agree with.
How do you find that balance between criticizing people
and then also not looking like you are condemning
mass groups of people as opposed to governments?
Yeah. I was gonna say with-with that tweet,
what I finally realized is, um,
the realization that I hope that people, um, come to
when we're having a conversation about white privilege.
-Right. -You know, people would be like,
"I grew up in a poor neighborhood.
-"I can't be privileged. -Right.
"Can you stop saying that?
-I haven't benefitted from my whiteness." -Uh-huh.
Um, and it's like, no, we're talking about systematic, right?
-Right, right, right. -Um, and, so, for me,
that happened for me.
I was like, "Do not call me that.
-That's not what I was doing." -Right.
And it was like, oh, I...
I see what you're saying now.
And so I...
You... I had to take a deep breath
and understand where people were coming from
and what point they were trying to make.
-Interesting. -Um, which is what I expect people to do
when I'm talking to them, right,
about things that impact me or offend me.
And what is important in-in this conversation
is that we separate
the-the land, the people and administrations.
When I talk about...
what we are doing wrong in this country,
it's not because I hate this country.
It's not because I don't see myself as American.
It's because I love this country and because I am American
and because I want it to do better.
And so when I talk about places like Saudi Arabia
or, you know, um, Israel
or even now with Venezuela,
I'm not criticizing the people.
I'm not criticizing their faith.
I'm not criticizing, um, their way of life.
What I am criticizing is what's happening at the moment,
and I want for there to be accountability
so that the government, that administration,
that regime can do better.
Because I believe that we all deserve better
-and the human collective -Mm-hmm.
requires us to speak up when we see something wrong.
(cheering and applause)
Thank you so much for coming back on.
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, everybody.