MSNBC "All In with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: "Ivanka Trump plays diplomat."
Interview
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HAYES: Congressman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and she joins me now. Congresswoman, what do you see as the effects of the President speaking in that way, going out of his way to sort of praise Mohammed bin Salman?
REP. ILHAN OMAR (D-MN): It`s really frustrating to hear this president talk about MBS and what he`s doing with women when we know that MBS has incarcerated the woman that have been fighting to liberate women in Saudi Arabia. But as they say, you know, you judge a man by the company he keeps. And in the ways that he`s cozied up to dictators around the world really tells us a lot about the kind of corrupt dictator in the making Trump is. I remember when he was running for office. He was asked once what he thought about Saudi Arabia, and he said you know, they spend $40 million, $50 million in my hotels. They`re great. Why would I think of them as an enemy? All he thinks about is how he`s going to enrich himself, doesn`t really pay attention to the kind of devastation some of these dictators are causing within their countries and around the world. You heard today as he referenced Kim and how healthy he appeared without worrying about the health and the well-being of the starving people of North Korea. The kind of ways that he is really leading our foreign policies, making a lot of our allies worry, and I am very concerned.
HAYES: I want to play you what he said about MBS specifically on the question of Khashoggi which is something that the man was an American resident and a columnist for an American newspaper. So there`s some stake here, some equity for the American government. This is his response. I want to play it and get your reaction. Take a listen.
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TRUMP: If you look, and look into Saudi Arabia you see what`s happening. 13 people or so have been prosecuted, others are being prosecuted. They`ve taken it very, very seriously. Nobody so far has pointed directly a finger at the future king of Saudi Arabia.
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HAYES: We should note that both the CIA and the U.N. had pointed a finger at MBS but what do you make of that?
OMAR: And we know that MBS`s hands are unclean. I mean, our own CIA has concluded that he had a hand in the brutal murder of Khashoggi. We know that this is -- this is a king -- a crown prince who really threatens women, and uses force, who as incarcerated so many political prisoners in his country who in some accounts even has his own mother under house arrests and other members within the kingdom. This is not a friend. This isn`t a good person. This isn`t someone who is moving the needle in any decent way. This is someone who has helped cause one of the worst humanitarian crises in the way -- in the fight in Yemen. This is someone we should be holding accountable. This is someone who we should be pushing to do better. This isn`t someone we should be talking about as a friend.
HAYES: Final question. You referred to the president in his sort of ardor for strongmen and dictators as a dictator in making himself. What do you mean by that?
OMAR: I mean, he has an affinity that is to dictators. We`ve seen in the ways that he gets excited when he talks about dictators is very different in the ways that he talks about other democratic leaders around the world. When he talks about Putin, when he talks about Kim, when he talks about MBS, there`s a little light in his eyes as if he almost envies and kind of wants to be like them. That should be very alarming to the people of our country. And I know what a making of a dictator looks like and I`ve said that since the day he`s gotten sworn in. We should be very worried.
HAYES: All right, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, thank you so much for your time.
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