Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) took to the House floor on Thursday to introduce a resolution calling for the House of Representatives to censure Somalia refugee Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for her recent remarks indicating loyalty to the government of Somalia. Green’s resolution also calls for Omar to be removed from two House committees. Greene’s censure resolution calls Omar’s remarks “treasonous.” In a statement about the resolution, Greene calls Omar a foreign agent.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) addressing a gathering of Somali- Americans in Minneapolis on January 27, 2024, screen image via Universal TV/YouTube.

Greene said she would prefer for Omar to be expelled from Congress and deported from the United States but she does not believe there are enough votes in Congress for that, so she opted to put forth a censure resolution.

House Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) has called on Omar to resign and has filed a demand for an Ethics Committee investigation of Omar, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has called for Omar to be expelled from Congress, stripped of her American citizenship and deported.

Omar has said her remarks, given in her native Somali language to a meeting of Somali-Americans in Minneapolis on Saturday, have been misinterpreted. However, the preferred translation still raises issues of her loyalty–as do other videos and news reports of her speeches to Somali government officials where she spoke using the words “we” and “our” when speaking to them about Somalia government issues.

In a December 2022 speech in Minneapolis, Omar said she has a “special relationship” with Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, and referred to him as “our president.”

Videos of Greene announcing, introducing and explaining the censure resolution. Greene accused Omar of being a foreign agent.

In a December 2022 trip to Somalia, Omar met with government leaders and spoke to them as if she was a fellow Somali offical, using the words “we” and “our” (VOA excerpt):

U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar hailed recent victories scored by the Somali government and local community forces against al-Shabab militants in central Somali regions.

Omar, who was born in Somalia, has been visiting the country since Thursday. In Mogadishu, she met with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre and members of the Cabinet and parliamentarians on Monday.

Speaking at a dinner in her honor hosted by Barre, Omar congratulated the Somali leaders for the “big success” against al-Shabab militants.

Omar called for collaboration in defeating the group she accused of “dishonoring” Islam.

“Our country and our religion have been associated with terrorism [because] of the dishonor they brought on us,” she said. “We have to get rid of them as Somalis and as Muslims and pray and support each other in that work.”

The preferred transcript of Omar’s remarks in Minneapolis on Saturday still raise issues of her loyalty, especially when she again calls the Somalia president “our president” (Translation via the Minnesota Reformer):

Remarks from U.S. Rep. Illan Omar:

We Somalis are people who love each other. It’s possible that we might sometimes have disagreements but we are also people who can rely on each other. We are people who are siblings. We are people with courage. We are people who know that they are Somali and Muslim. We are people who support each other.

So when I heard that people who call themselves Somalis signed an agreement with Ethiopia, many people reached out to me and said I needed to talk to the U.S. government. They asked, what would the U.S. government do? My answer was that the U.S. government will do what we tell the U.S. government to do. That is the confidence we need to have as Somalis. We live in this country. This is the country where we pay taxes. This is the country that has elected a woman from your community. For as long as I am in Congress, no one will take over the seas belonging to the nation of Somalia and the United States will not support others who seek to steal from us. So feel comfortable Somali Minnesotans that the woman you sent to Congress is aware of this issue and feels the same way you do.

I want to tell President Hassan Sheikh that we are happy with the great work that you have done. We are happy that you have made the people of Somalia and those who live everywhere feel that no matter how difficult our current situation, we are people who have power and who believe in their country.

I want to congratulate Somalis living in Minnesota and elsewhere for being united, for standing with our president because he needs our support. Somalia is Somali. Somalia is one. We are siblings. Our land will not be divided. God willing we will seek to return our missing territory and will not allow the territory we have now to be divided.

I want to thank you for how you have welcomed me. May peace be upon you.

Original source video without subtitles:

Text of Greene’s proposed resolution to censure Omar:

RESOLUTION Censuring Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

Whereas elected Members of Congress take an oath to ‘‘bear true faith and allegiance’’ to the United States, ‘‘without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion’’;

Whereas Representative Ilhan Omar took an oath of allegiance to the United States upon becoming a citizen, declaring, ‘‘I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen’’;

Whereas on January 27, 2024, Representative Omar gave remarks at an event in Minneapolis in which she made treasonous statements;

Whereas Representative Omar said she has spoken to many Somalians who asked her to intercede for the Somali government by pressuring the United States Government into certain actions;

Whereas Representative Omar assured the Somalians she spoke to, ‘‘the U.S. Government will only do what Somalians in the U.S. tell them to do. They will do what we want and nothing else. They must follow our orders and that is how we will safeguard the interest of Somalia.’’;

Whereas Representative Omar continued, ‘‘for as long as I am in the U.S. Congress, Somalia will never be in danger, its waters will not be stolen by Ethiopia or others. Sleep in comfort knowing I am here to protect the interests of Somalia from inside the U.S. system.’’;

Whereas George Washington warned in his Farewell Address of 1796 to ‘‘Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism’’, and further declared, ‘‘Citizens, by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations’’;

Whereas these statements by Representative Omar clearly violate the oath she took as an elected Member of Congress to defend and protect the United States Constitution;

Whereas Representative Omar has exhibited the treasonous tendencies George Washington warned about, and her actions must be condemned by all Members of Congress who adhere to the oath they took upon assuming office; and

Whereas by openly admitting her efforts to advance Somalia’s interests using her position as a United States Representative, Representative Omar has revealed herself to be a foreign agent acting on behalf of a foreign government: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That—
(1) Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota be censured;
(2) Representative Ilhan Omar forthwith 5 present herself in the well of the House of Representatives for the pronouncement of censure;
(3) Representative Ilhan Omar be censured 8 with the public reading of this resolution by the Speaker; and
(4) Representative Ilhan Omar be, and is here11 by, removed from the Committee on the Budget and the Committee on Education and the Workforce.

 

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