Ilhan Omar: Progressives trying to ‘grab power’ from party leaders

Before she goes after Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) may want to attend to the mutiny brewing in her own backyard.

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) admitted Saturday that progressives want to take power from the party’s leaders — not “share” it. Omar’s admission came amid a Democrat civil war that erupted last week after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) accused Pelosi of having racist motivations when she dismisses Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, and two other women who call themselves “the squad,” Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA).

“We are not really in the business of asking for the share of that power. We are in the business of trying to grab that power and return it to the people,” Omar said to applause at the Netroots Nation conference, a gathering of progressives.

Grab, don’t share

Although Pelosi wasn’t mentioned by name, the party power broker was the elephant in the room Saturday as Omar and other members of the “squad” addressed their ongoing feud with party leadership. Omar, who has become known for her incendiary commentary towards President Trump and establishment Democrats alike (including former president Obama), told progressives that it’s not the job of women of color to “ask for permission or wait for an invitation to lead.”

“We were sent to Washington, I believe, to lead with our values,” Omar said, referring to freshman far-left lawmakers. “We recognize every single person has a role. Our role is to take our votes. Leadership’s role is to wrangle votes. And so if everybody understands what their role is, then everybody succeeds,” she continued.

Omar’s audience couldn’t have missed her meaning. Saturday’s conference capped off a wild week of intra-party intrigue. Pelosi had dismissed Ocasio-Cortez and her “squad” in a recent interview, saying that they still have only four votes despite wielding influence on Twitter. Ocasio-Cortez set off a firestorm on Wednesday when she responded by accusing Pelosi of “singling out” her “squad” because of their race.

She later tried to backtrack, but the comments had already inflamed a simmering divide between party leadership and the progressive wing. Many Democrats came to Pelosi’s defense and said that Ocasio-Cortez had crossed a line. But compromise with power clearly wasn’t on the minds of Omar or two of her fellow “squad” members Saturday.

Rep. Pressley said that “the people closest to the pain should be closest to the power.” Tlaib, of “impeach the mother—-er” fame agreed, saying, “You have to be unapologetically you.”

Watch below, from the Washington Examiner:

Feud on pause

The Democrats’ feud was briefly placed on pause Sunday after Trump attacked the “Democrat congresswomen” and told them to “go back” to their countries of origin and fix the problems there before lecturing Americans on how to live. In fact, only Omar, who came to America as a Somalian refugee, is an immigrant.

Democrats condemned Trump’s tweet blast, with Pelosi accusing Trump of stirring “xenophobia” and wanting to “make America white again.” But while many on the left condemned Trump, the president found supporters among those who find the rhetoric and policies of Omar and her “squad” un-American. All four have embraced an agenda that calls for open borders in everything but name, for example by abolishing  Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Trump doubled down on Monday, insisting that the congresswomen “apologize” for their anti-American hatred. The “squad” fired back at a Monday press conference, where they called for Trump’s impeachment and accused him of a “blatantly racist” attack. Omar claimed that Trump colluded with Russia, despite Robert Mueller having discovered that no such conspiracy occurred.

“This is a president who has said ‘grab women by the pu–y,'” Omar said. “This is a president who has called black athletes ‘sons of bit–es.’ This is a president who has called people who come from black and brown countries ‘sh–holes.’…To distract from that, he’s launching a blatantly racist attack on four duly elected members of the United States House of Representatives, all of whom are women of color. This is the agenda of white nationalists.”

Party’s radical turn

It may be worth noting that despite the much-discussed Democrat civil war, Pelosi’s immigration policies are extreme as well. The House Speaker has called walls “immoral” and gave advice to illegal immigrants on how to defy ICE as a planned roundup loomed over the weekend. However, some differences linger. It was the “squad”‘s vote against a Pelosi-backed border funding bill last month that set the fuse.

Last Wednesday, Pelosi scolded restive members of her caucus after Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff Saikrat Chakrabarti compared moderate Democrats to segregationists for supporting a more conservative border funding bill. The party leader reminded members to hash out their differences in private, not on Twitter.

With Democrats again rushing to the defense of their most extreme lawmakers, Democrats have just exposed how much they hate the country they are elected to serve.

“If someone doesn’t like our country, if someone doesn’t want to be in our country, they should leave,” Trump told reporters Monday. “These are people that hate our country. They hate it, I think, with a passion.”