Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is seeking to censure one of her Democratic colleagues for comments.
On Thursday, Greene took to the House floor to resolution against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).
The Georgia congressman woman explained the purpose of the resolution is to censure “Ilhan Omar of Somalia — I mean Minnesota.”
She went on to read the text of the resolution:
“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 Rep. Ilhan Omar took an oath of allegiance to the United States upon becoming a citizen… Whereas on Jan. 27, 2024, Rep. Omar gave remarks at an event in Minneapolis, in which she made treasonous statements. Whereas Rep. 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.”
Watch the video below:
.@RepMTG introduces resolution to censure Rep. @Ilhan Omar (D-MN). pic.twitter.com/hGdR2PQeYo
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 1, 2024
Greene claimed Omar told the crowd 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.”
The comments at issue center around a translation of a speech Omar gave. In one translation, the Democratic congresswoman told the audience they are “people who know they are Somalians first, Muslims second.”
Republicans seized on the translation to claim she was asserting she was putting Somalia’s interests ahead of the United States.
She was also accused of saying, “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.”
However, the Minnesota Reformer, citing a federally certified court interpreter reports the translation is different.
According to the interpreter, Omar said, “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.”
Speaking about a deal made by the breakaway region of Somaliland and Ethiopia, Omar said, “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,” she added, according to the interpretation.
In a separate post on X, Greene said she wished there were enough votes to expel Omar from Congress and deport her.
