Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) used a trip with the Congressional Black Caucus and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Africa this week to mock President Donald Trump and his supporters, who chanted “send her back” in response to Omar’s anti-America remarks. Omar posted a tweet about how, instead of her being sent back Pelosi took her to the continent.
“They said ‘send her back’ but Speaker @SpeakerPelosi didn’t just make arrangements to send me back, she went back with me,” Omar tweeted. “So grateful for the honor to return to Mother Africa with the @TheBlackCaucus.”
They said “send her back” but Speaker @SpeakerPelosi didn’t just make arrangements to send me back, she went back with me ✊🏽
So grateful for the honor to return to Mother Africa with the @TheBlackCaucus and commemorate The Year of Return! #Doorofreturn #Ghana pic.twitter.com/0yVBLcAEs5
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 1, 2019
The tweet was accompanied by photos of Omar and Pelosi in Ghana, where they and their Democrat colleagues reportedly talked with government officials about global security and climate change.
The group did not visit Somalia, the rogue nation-state Omar’s family fled when she was a child. The trip was also made to mark the 400th anniversary of the first shipment of slaves to the United States. The photo of a smiling Omar and Pelosi shows the “Door of No Return” located at the slave shipping port.
CBS reported on the “powerful pair of images” Omar posted:
The photo shows Pelosi and Omar walking through a set of massive wood doors at Cape Coast Castle, the gateway that millions of Africans passed through to walk onto the ships that would take them around the world to lives of slavery in America and other countries. The photo was posted by Omar on her Instagram, which has already garnered over 140,000 likes.
It sent a defiant message to President Trump and his tweets that Omar and three other progressive congresswomen known as “the Squad” should “go back” to their countries. Last month, supporters at a Trump rally chanted “send her back!” when the president took aim at Omar.
The post also signaled friendship with the speaker, with whom the progressives have had their differences. Earlier this summer, another member of the squad, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, accused Pelosi of “singling out newly elected women of color” in the Democratic caucus over their differences with moderates. Since those comments and a private meeting between Ocasio-Cortez and Pelosi, the speaker has dismissed any tension within the caucus as family infighting.
CBS did not report that the president’s tweet about Omar, Ocasio-Cortez, and Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) was misreported. Trump tweeted about the foursome’s record of anti-America remarks and suggested they should go back to their ancestral home and report back on how to solve the problems plaguing those countries.
….and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2019
Omar also posted on Instagram about the trip, saying that U.S. and leaders in Ghana “must work together to overcome global security.”
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