While appearing on CNN with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minneapolis) said she would vote in favor of impeaching President Donald Trump if elected to Congress in November.
“I would vote yes,” Omar told Van Jones over the weekend, saying that America today does not resemble the “kind of nation” she “heard about 23 years ago in that refugee camp.”
“I feel we’re just even seeing the tip of the iceberg of how destructive this president is. I recognize him as a tyrant. I recognize him as someone who has developed tendencies of dictatorship,” said Omar, who is expected to replace Keith Ellison in Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District.
“What the Democrats are running for is to save our nation from destruction. We are interested in making sure the American people have hope restored in them,” she continued, saying the American people need more “transparency and accountability” in their government.
Omar was joined by her Democratic colleague Ocasio-Cortez, who agreed with Omar’s calls for a Trump impeachment.
“I would vote to impeach because he’s committed a crime, and people who commit crimes need to be impeached,” she said, suggesting that Trump has violated the “emoluments clause.”
“He has refused to divest himself of businesses through which there are foreign actors investing and currently conducting businesses. I think that we currently have a full FBI investigation through which women may have been provided financial settlements in an illegal manner or a manner that violates campaign finance laws,” she suggested, saying that there “many different ways” to impeach Trump.
Omar was elected to the Minnesota House in 2016 as the nation’s first Somali-American lawmaker and currently serves as the Democratic Party’s assistant minority leader, a role she has used to fight for “Medicare for all, tuition and debt-free college,” and “housing as a human right.”
On Monday, President Barack Obama announced his endorsements for Minnesota’s statewide races, but Omar was noticeably absent from the list.
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
