MSNBC "The Rachel Maddow Show - Transcript: "Interview with Rep Ilhan Omar."

Interview

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RACHEL MADDOW, MSNBC HOST: There is no playbook for how you are supposed to respond to a serving American president launching an explicitly racist "go back to where you came from" campaign of vitriol for his own political gain. There`s nowhere you can go to look up what do in the event of this. There is no manual that tells you what the right way is to respond to that. But there are four young members of Congress who are writing that book for all of us now. Today, Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held a joint four-way press conference to respond to the president`s attacks over the weekend and today`s follow-up performance on the White House South Lawn which was an extended diatribe by the president in which he accused these four specific members of Congress of hating the United States and loving al Qaeda. As we saw from the president`s notes, that would be al Qaeda spelled A-L-C-A-I-D-A because who does not need a phonetic reminder of how to say that organization? Of course, despite the president calling on the four members to return to their broken crime-infested countries, all four of the members targeted by the president`s racist attacks, of course, are Americans. They are all U.S. citizens. Only one of the four of them was not born in this country. Ilhan Omar fled to the U.S. from war-torn Somalia when she was a little kid. She became a U.S. citizen as a teenager. She`s now a duly elected member of Congress from Minnesota. Over the weekend, Congresswoman Omar responded to the president on Twitter, calling him the most corrupt and inept president we have ever seen. She accused him of stoking white nationalism because you are afraid -- angry that people like us are serving in Congress and fighting against your hate-filled agenda. She quoted Bobby Kennedy saying: America`s answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired. This afternoon, Congresswoman Omar added to her critique.

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OMAR: This is the agenda of white nationalists. Whether it is happening in chat rooms or it`s happening on national TV and now, it`s reached the White House garden. He would love nothing more than to divide our country based on race, religion, gender, orientation, or immigration status, because this is the only way he knows he can prevent the solidarity of us working together across all of our differences.

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MADDOW: Whether the president`s comments and most recent attacks are an attempt to distract from his policies or just provide a spine in which all the bones of the rest of his reelection campaign are due to hang, today, Democratic leaders in the House announced that they will soon vote on a resolution condemning the president`s racist attacks on those members of Congress. That vote could come as soon as tomorrow. But Congresswoman Omar and her colleagues have been bearing the brunt of these attacks and they are trying to show the country the proper response. I mean, what do you when the leader of your country starts an explicitly racist attack against you? What do you show in terms of your own leadership as an elected political leader in this country in response to that to try to help the country not be as hurt by that as it could be? They are working this out right now. Speaking for themselves on their own terms and not seating an inch. Joining us now is Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. She`s a Democrat of Minnesota. Congresswoman, thank you very much for making time tonight. I know there are a lot of demands on your time right now in the storm that you`re in. Thanks for being here.

OMAR: Great to be here with you, Rachel. Thank you for having me.

MADDOW: So, as I was just saying, there`s obviously no playbook for how to respond to racist attacks from a sitting president. How have you gone about formulating your response, figuring out the right way for you to absorb these attacks from the president and to talk to the country in the way that you have ever since this started?

OMAR: Look, many of us as I said today when we are brown and black in this country have been subjected to the old racist trope of "go back to where you came from", whether it happens in a school playground or inside the hallway or someone shouting at you in the street. And many of us have had our responses. And now, today and yesterday, we had to figure out how to respond to it coming from the president of the United States. And we were reminded, something that my 7-year-old says, you know, does he know he is the president of the United States? We had to make sure to let him know that here in this country, we see everyone, we welcome everyone, and we remind people that they are valued. And we`re not going to allow him to continue his throwing of the vile of garbage that constantly comes out of his mouth that allows for the media to be distracted truly from delivering the kind of inside investigation into the lawlessness that is of his administration, the constant human rights violations, the policies that are detrimental to our existence in this country, and the harm that he is causing on a daily basis to our Constitution and the existence of our country.

MADDOW: As the president has singled out you and your colleagues in the House, obviously that`s put an incredibly hot spotlight on you. But as you are saying, that critique that this is an effort to distract by the president, this is an effort for him to create a narrative that he likes. He`s doing this obviously on purpose and he knows how people will respond to the sorts of attacks. I wonder how you think that in terms of balance. Obviously, you have a platform because you are looked to for a response to the attacks from the president that is of his making, but also you get to speak on your own terms once you get that. How do you sort of avoid helping him do his work of distracting from the kinds of things that you just described?

OMAR: I mean, we get an opportunity to call him out and we get an opportunity to really talk about what the direction for this country should look like. This is a president who believes it is OK for him to think that people who say something that will move this country forward should be deported. He`s called on us to go back and fight corruption and fight these countries that have worse leaders and inept leaders. Well, we are living in one. He is that president. He is corrupt. He is the worst president we`ve had. He is inept and we are going to call him out for it, and we`re going to hold him accountable. We`re going to talk about the policies that he is creating that we think are setting our country back. And we`re going to have -- make sure that not only do we resist him, but that we insist on furthering policies that are going to guarantee health care for people, that are going to provide the proper education that they need, that is going to make sure they are not forever shackled with student debt, is going to provide the kind of housing that is proper, that is going to take care of our veterans, our disabled and our most vulnerable, which is our children, and our elderly. And we are going to make sure that we are moving the agenda we were sent to move here in Congress.

MADDOW: Today in your remarks with your colleagues, you and Congresswoman Tlaib, both specifically mentioned impeachment and called for impeachment proceedings to start against the president. Is that for the conduct laid out in the Mueller report or for other scandal-ridden behavior, are you suggesting that he ought to be impeached in part for the kinds of attacks that he`s levied against you and your colleagues?

OMAR: No, we are suggesting that he`s committed high crimes and misdemeanors, and it`s about time that we start the process and impeach this president. As Ayanna says, he is an occupant and does not rise to the level of what we expect our president to and it`s time for us to make sure that the United States has a president that they can be proud of, someone who understands the responsibility of a president and someone who carries it out. Look, we have a president that truly believes that if you say something that he doesn`t agree with, that you should no longer have the opportunity to exercise your First Amendment rights. This is a president who himself said our country and its leaders are dumb. This is a president who said the state of New Hampshire is a drug infested den. This is a president who constantly vulgarly speaks about how dirty our streets are, how inept we are as a nation, and doesn`t really offer any solution in dealing with that. He abdicates his responsibility in trying to set the course on what makes our country live up to its ideals. And here we are as members of Congress doing the work that will get us the country we all deserve, one that is truly functioning for all of us, one that sees and values every single person in it and one that is making sure that our shiny and wonderful Constitution is fully intact and the protections is offered is enjoyed by all of us.

MADDOW: Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, thank you for your time this evening. I`m sure these last few days have been incredibly stressful. You taking time to talk us about it is an honor. Thanks very much.

OMAR: Thank you.

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