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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) doubled down on her comments that late conservative political activist Charlie Kirk had "no legacy to honor" during an appearance on former CNN anchor Don Lemon's YouTube show this week.
“I have nothing to apologize for,” Omar said when asked by Lemon about the backlash she received shortly after Kirk's assassination.
“You know, it is a tragedy that Charlie Kirk was killed in that way. I feel for his widow and his children. They will have to live with that for the rest of their lives,” she added. “But there is no legacy to honor. It was a legacy filled with bigotry, hatred, and white supremacy. And as a black woman and as a Muslim in this country, I refuse to join the chorus that changes the history of what is on the record from this man.”
Omar added that Kirk's "crazy people" supporters, including President Donald Trump, could "do whatever they want to do" but she'd refuse to be “bullied into complacency, into dishonoring who I am and what I stand for, just to, you know, make them feel comfortable" following her comments. The progressive congresswoman faced criticism from conservatives after she publicly scoffed at the notion that Kirk's core mission was to have a civil debate on politics.
“There are a lot of people who are talking about him [Kirk] just wanting to have a civil debate,” Omar said via Zeteo. “These people are full of s**t and it’s important for us to call them out while we feel anger and sadness.”
“There is nothing more f**ked up than to pretend that his words and actions haven’t been recorded and in existence for the last decade or so,” she added, accusing Kirk of having shared "hateful rhetoric" on social media prior to his death.
Omar, a native of Somalia whose family secured asylum in the United States in 1995, also shared a separate video on her X account bashing fellow Democrats and celebrities for "normalizing Kirk," who she described as a "reprehensible human being" and a "stochastic terrorist." Trump claimed he told Somali President Hassan Sheikh to "take back" Omar following her comments about Kirk.
“I met the head of Somalia, did you know that?” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office via the New York Post. “And I suggested that maybe he’d like to take her back. And he said, ‘I don’t want her.’”