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Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., told MS NOW Wednesday night that she believes the raid on her home was to “intimidate and scare people” away from voting in the midterm elections.
Omar’s home in Washington, D.C., was raided by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) last Monday in connection to an investigation into potential immigration fraud. Authorities are probing whether Omar or her father lied on paperwork that helped her gain citizenship. Border czar Tom Homan has said that if the allegations are proven, Omar could be denaturalized.
Omar, who has largely avoided public scrutiny since the raid, gave her first interview on the subject on “All In with Chris Hayes” and suggested that the decision to investigate her was a last-ditch effort by President Donald Trump to appeal to right-wing influencers.
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“I think they were like starting to lose faith that these were empty promises, and they had to do something, I believe, to say, ‘Hey, look, we raided her house. You know, now you can feel comfortable that we are doing something,'” Omar said. “I think … whether it’s Metro Surge, whether it is the voter rolls that they’re looking at, whether it’s the door knocks that you just spoke of, that is all to show these people that they’re doing something and to save face.”
“Because they made this huge promise that there was somehow this massive … sort of undocumented people that were voting in American elections and that there is something that they need to go and fix.”
“And so they, you know, they’re going to try to gin up this sort of frenzy,” she added. “And, I think ultimately their goal is to intimidate and scare people from wanting to participate and vote.”
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Despite that, Omar insisted that the raid had likely inspired people to vote in spite of the president.
“As I was driving up here today, we were getting calls that people, you know, are just like, there’s a massive line at early voting sites. And a lot of our staff that are, you know, helping people drive to go vote are saying, you know, ‘We don’t have the capacity to keep up with the requests that we’re getting of people who need assistance to get to the early voting site.’ I think it’s doing the opposite,” Omar said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
ILHAN OMAR’S HUSBAND SNAPS OVER RUMORS SHE FLED US AFTER FEDERAL IMMIGRATION FRAUD RAID
Prior to Tuesday night via a campaign video, Omar had not been seen publicly since before the raid on her home, which was first reported by Fox News Digital last week. Her husband, Tim Mynett, has been seen outside the residence walking their dog.
Additionally, Fox News Digital has spotted a campaign aide bringing in food and both of her daughters arriving at the home two days apart.
Trump warned Tuesday from the Oval Office that Omar could be jailed if the allegations against her are true.
“Well, she could be. She could also go to jail,” Trump said. “You know, they keep talking about deportation. No, she could go to jail.”
“This is just my opinion,” he continued, before calling the congresswoman “a very dishonest person” who “hates our country.”
Fox News’ Peter D’Abrosca contributed to this report.
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