A CNN anchor usually on the side of progressives unexpectedly found herself on the other side of the aisle on the air Monday – following some erroneous, accusatory remarks from Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Omar, 42, had been fielding questions from Pamela Brown when she made the comments in question – that Texas Congressman Brandon Gill’s entire fanbase are ‘xenophobic and racist.’
The offhand remark stopped Brown, 45, in her tracks, weeks into her new tenure as The Situation Room’s co-anchor alongside Wolf Blitzer.
The latter appeared to let Omar’s dig toward the Trump-supporting Republican slide, but Brown was not so kind.
‘Just to follow up, very quickly, just to be clear – you’re not calling all of Gill’s base xenophobic and racist, right?’ she asked, as if to seek clarification.
Omar – who had been responding to a February post from Gill attacking her when she made her remarks – refused to change her stance.
Shortly before, Omar had called Gill’s post ‘red meat’ for his fanbase – after it called for her deportation.
Omar – one of four founding members of an informal progressive coalition commonly dubbed The Squad – became a U.S. citizen in 2000 when she was 17 years old. She was born in Somalia and sought asylum alongside her family in 1995.
CNN’s Pamela Brown (roght) herself on the other side of the aisle on the air Monday – following some erroneous, accusatory remarks from Rep. Ilhan Omar (left). The two are seen together on the set of Brown and Wolf Blitzer’s The Situation Room
Omar, 42, had been fielding questions from Pamela Brown when she made the comments in question – that Texas Congressman Brandon Gill’s entire fanbase are ‘xenophobic and racist.’
‘Well, I mean, he is feeding to something,’ the representative for Minnesota’s 5th congressional district said of Gill, who had lumped her with illegal immigrants.
‘He has a petition out. He’s getting donations,’ she went on. ‘That’s what this is all about. He knows he can’t deport me.’
Blitzer, after pointing out how Omar was an elected official, looked on silently – as did Brown.
‘There is no grounds for my arrest,’ Omar continued, after Gil accused her of breaking the law by conducting seminars for Somalians living illegally in her state, which she has admitted to.
‘So this information is only being put out there by him for a reason, and that reason is because he has a base that feeds off of that.’
The back-and-forth ended there, with Blitzer taking the opportunity to go to commercial.
Brown, however, appeared perturbed by the progressives incendiary comments – comments Omar never managed to clear up.
‘I appreciate you all for having me,’ she said as the interview came to an end – some four weeks after being singled out on social media by Gill.
The offhand comment stopped Brown, 45, in her tracks, weeks into her new tenure as The Situation Room’s co-anchor alongside Wolf Blitzer
Omar had been responding to a February tweet from Texas Republican Brandon Gill calling for Omar’s deportation, despite her being a legal citizen
Upon being confronted with her own erroneous comments, Omar did not shy away, explaining what she had meant by her words, not taking them back. The segment comes at a time where Democrats are divided, and as much of the government remains under Republican control
At the time, as he reshared video said to be from one of the Minnesota meets shared by Elon Musk, Gill wrote, ‘America would be a better place if @IlhanMN were deported back to Somalia.’
‘She is breaking the law. Literally. Outright,’ Musk went on to claim – eliciting a reply out of Omar.
‘Hey Elon… Every single person in this country deserves to know their rights,’ she wrote in reply, tweeting the words on X.
‘That’s legal. Maybe you should brush up on our laws given the fact you’re breaking them to steal American’s sensitive data.
‘PS. This video is manipulated,’ she went on to claim, adding ‘I wasn’t even at the event shown.
Both Blitzer, 76, and Brown appeared unsettled by the conservative’ comments on Monday, before Omar responded with her own vitriol.
The segment comes at a time where Democrats are more divided than ever, and as the presidency, House, and Senate all remain under Republican control.