Rep. ILHAN OMAR Talks Terror In Minneapolis And Becoming American

Summary

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The Adam Friedland Show

Episode: Rep. ILHAN OMAR Talks Terror In Minneapolis And Becoming American

Release Date: April 15, 2026
Host: Adam Friedland
Guest: Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN)

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Overview

In this engaging and candid episode, Adam Friedland sits down with Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to explore her remarkable journey from childhood in war-torn Somalia, to life in a Kenyan refugee camp, through immigrant youth in America, and on to becoming one of the most visible—and controversial—members of Congress. The conversation delves into Omar’s personal resilience, unique background, experiences with xenophobia and harassment, the realities of refugee and immigrant life in America, her perspective on recent ICE operations in Minneapolis, and her reflections on American identity.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Early Life, Family, and Surviving War

• Childhood in Somalia and Family Dynamics:

  • Ilhan describes a loving, lively, extended family home in Mogadishu before the outbreak of civil war at age 8.
  • Her mother was of Yemeni heritage and set unusual cultural terms by having Ilhan's father move in with her family, showcasing strong, independent women in her lineage.
  • Quote: "My mother was the firstborn of her family... she was very adamant that any suitor had to agree to move in with her family, which was a cultural no-no." (20:32, Ilhan Omar)

• War’s Impact and Becoming a Refugee:

  • Everyday life shifted instantly, from “just being a normal kid” to “kids around your age walking around with rifles and bombs dropping.” (22:27)
  • The trauma of war—including displacement and loss—shaped her worldview and sense of resilience.
  • Quote: “I do think of war through the lens of someone who survived one...there is the displacement, it's the trauma that you can't get rid of.” (23:48, Ilhan Omar)

Adapting to American Life

• Cultural Integration and Identity:

  • Ilhan arrived in Virginia at 12, not speaking English, learning through TV ("Family Matters," "Baywatch") and practicing dialogues with her sister.
  • She picked up English rapidly, becoming fluent within months; feeling truly American by 13 or 14.
  • Quote: “I was pretty fluent within, like, three to six months.” (17:15, Ilhan Omar)
  • She reflects on the strange process of "becoming American," integrating new norms, and raising her own children with values of autonomy learned from her father and grandfather.

• Refugee Perspective on American Identity:

  • Her grandfather chose America because “it was the only country in the world where you will eventually become an American.” (38:26)
  • She notes that in most countries, ethnicity and nationality meld, usually restricting full integration for immigrants.
  • Quote: "I don't know too many places where an immigrant can absorb the identity of a new nation they arrive in." (38:43, Ilhan Omar)

Public Life, Xenophobia, and Political Attacks

• Constant Scrutiny and Threats:

  • Since her State House race, Omar became a national “boogeyman,” facing both official and unofficial threats, including calls for her execution and persistent security concerns.
  • She credits her refugee experience for imparting a sense of fearlessness:
    • “I survived all of these things that could have destroyed me ... what is the point of having fear?” (29:10, Ilhan Omar)

• Firsts and Visibility:

  • Omar is the first African-born, the first Somalian, and one of the first Muslim women in Congress—not born in the U.S.
  • She notes that more attention is due to her being visibly Muslim and an immigrant, more so than being Black or a woman. (40:07)
  • On being used for political posturing:
    • “I might be a little bit of a boogeyman for the MAGA.” (08:54, Ilhan Omar)
    • Adam Friedland: “Would it be fair to say that you're used as a political cudgel?” (08:49)

Minneapolis, ICE, and Operation Metro Search

• Federal Operations and Community Terror:

  • Omar recounts the fear and trauma from "federal occupation" of Minnesota, with over 4,000 ICE and CBP agents patrolling, stopping cars, and detaining even legal residents.
  • Two of her constituents, Renee Good and Alex Preddy, were killed for documenting ICE actions.
  • Quote: "The federal occupation ... was a little scary. We had over 4,000 ICE and CPP agents ... masked men patrolling with machine guns." (50:55, Ilhan Omar)
  • Only about 3% of those detained were Somali—most were Latinos, many with legal status.

• Community Response and Hidden Resilience:

  • Neighborhoods organized to protect one another: “soccer moms...block watches...parents organized to alert others when ICE...would be in the neighborhood.” (58:14, Ilhan Omar)
  • The sense of being "terrorized" rather than policed is a central theme.

Broader Politics and the Democratic Party

• Harsh Reflection on Detention and Deportation Policy:
  • Omar is critical of Democratic complicity in creating inhumane detention systems, noting that they have since become tools for “the most evil people” (61:26).
  • She advocates for restoring checks and balances: "Democrats are not asking for much. All they're asking for is allow us to at least have a check and balance." (62:09, Ilhan Omar)
  • She expresses limited optimism but says meaningful change is only possible if Democrats regain control.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• The Power of Humor and Resilience:

  • Adam jokes about their shared “trauma” as immigrants over not getting cool underwear in school: “Reminds me a lot of when my dad wouldn’t get me boxer shorts.” (30:55)
  • Ilhan’s quip: “I have a pretty smart 13 year old and I'm not sure she's ready to vote.” (10:47)
  • On fighting as a child and dominance over her brothers: “But you beat your brother’s butts to a little girl.” (32:51, Adam Friedland)

• On Cultural Differences:

  • Ilhan, on Somali customs: “Oh, we don’t do cheers.” (13:36)
  • Adam: “Because it’s... haram.”
  • Ilhan: “Yeah. It didn’t make it into our vocabulary.” (13:39)

• Reflections on Public Attacks:

  • “What doesn’t break you makes you stronger ... there are people who do end up being broken. But I think it did the opposite for me.” (29:10, Ilhan Omar)

• On Political Life and Appearance:

  • Adam: “You think Mitch McConnell got there because of pretty privilege?” (42:05)
  • Omar: “You can admit it is not a beauty contest.” (42:09)

• On Her 'All About the Benjamins' Controversy:

  • Ilhan: “It was a generational miscommunication...I think I was too young for a lot of the people who were commenting on it.” (45:06)
  • Adam: “I tweeted: Chelsea Clinton isn’t even Jewish. She’s just ugly. Sorry, sorry, sorry.” (46:46)

• On Therapy, Staff, and Self-Care:

  • Ilhan: “Therapy is... I have people who naturally are like, this is crazy. And I’m not gonna internalize any of this stuff...We mainly feel bad for the crazy people who call into our office.” (70:09)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Ilhan’s Childhood and the Outbreak of War: 19:06 – 23:30
• On Being a Refugee and Immigrant Perspective: 38:26 – 41:45
• On National Prominence and Political Attacks: 08:49 – 09:52, 29:10 – 32:37
• Operation Metro Search and ICE in Minneapolis: 50:44 – 56:07
• Debate on Detention, Party Responsibility, and Systemic Change: 61:26 – 64:11
• Humor, Pop Culture, and Adjusting to America: 15:17 – 18:32
• The “All About the Benjamins” Incident: 45:06 – 46:46
• Segment on Somali Tea and 'Spilling Tea': 04:50 – 08:47

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Tone & Style

The conversation is consistently lively, humorous, and marked by mutual respect and candor. Adam’s irreverent, self-deprecating humor lightens tense topics, while Omar’s calm, matter-of-fact storytelling and resilience are clear throughout. Memorable moments arise from their personal immigrant tales, playful banter, and direct engagement with tough political questions.

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Conclusion

This episode provides deep insights into Ilhan Omar’s backstory, how adversity has shaped her, and the current pressures facing immigrant and refugee communities—especially in Minneapolis. It’s rich with personal anecdotes, political candor, and sharp humor, making it both informative and, at times, moving. Omar stands as a resilient symbol of what’s possible in America amid daunting odds.

Transcript

[Adam Friedland]

Your family got the visa to move to the States and to leave the refugee camp in Kenya. Also, you learned how to scrap. Is that where you learned how to scrap? No.

[Ilhan Omar]

I mean, I've got six older siblings. I've got three brothers, so.

[Adam Friedland]

And you've never lost one fight? Could you. You could beat up anyone in Congress.

[Ilhan Omar]

I don't. I don't want my brothers being upset about this, but you beat they.

[Adam Friedland]

They butts. I don't know why I said it that way. You beat your brother's butts to a little girl.

[Ilhan Omar]

We'll leave that to the imagination.

[Adam Friedland]

You were little, though.

[Ilhan Omar]

I was.

[Adam Friedland]

Did you do it in front of girls their age?

[Ilhan Omar]

No.

[Adam Friedland]

Thank God. They would have never lived that down.

[Ilhan Omar]

But I rarely fought girls. I mostly fought boys.

[Adam Friedland]

She's such a gangster.

[Ilhan Omar]

I'm sorry.

[Adam Friedland]

Hello, and welcome to the Adam Friedland Show. It's Adam, guys. First off, I have to say this. Tampa, Florida, this weekend, please come see me. Science Players Comedy Club. And also in a couple weeks, I'll be in Los Angeles, California, at the Regent Theater. We sold out the first show. They've added a second enough of that. My guest this week is Ilhan Omar, representative from Minnesota in the House of Representatives. Since her election to the house in 2019, Omar has become one of the most well known, oftentimes maligned politicians in America today. I really enjoyed getting to know her backstory. I knew some of it, but it's really unlike any other member of Congress. At 8 years old, civil war broke out in Somalia and she escaped to Kenya to a refugee camp. And at 12, she moved to Virginia with her family before eventually settling in Minneapolis. Since her election to Congress, she's also been subject to constant harassment and even death threats. There have been Republican candidates for office who have called for her execution. Multiple people have been imprisoned for plotting her assassination. President Trump has targeted her repeatedly throughout her entire time in Congress. He's advocated for her expulsion from the country among just other derogatory whatever. Funnily enough, we had this scheduled twice before on the calendar, and those two times were the days that New York City had blizzards this year. Islamophobic. The Jewish God is mad at me. Hashem is mad at me. The first two times, she had extensive security detail that was provided by Congress. She was the only member of Congress that had it, and they needed access to do full security sweeps of the studio. And on Friday, when I asked her team if they needed access this weekend, they said that Speaker Johnson has revoked that security. I had a bunch of questions prepared for the congresswoman about what it's like for a person to endure all that. But what I could tell immediately is that she's genuinely just unafraid and unfazed, or at least she seems like she is. I don't think many people could do that. I think it takes a really special person to do that. So here's my interview. We do a funny bit up top, if you're still watching Ilhan Omar. She said it was better than Hasan. Just for the record, ladies and gentlemen, Congresswoman from Minnesota, Ilhan Omar. This is our third attempt at this.

[Ilhan Omar]

It is. How are you?

[Adam Friedland]

Do you think that this is cursed? Do you think we're cursed?

[Ilhan Omar]

You know, there's always weather issues.

[Adam Friedland]

No. We've had two blizzards in New York City. We've had two blizzards and those were both on the day that you were supposed to come.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. Welcome to our situation in Minnesota.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Do you like it there? It seems plenty cold. No?

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. But as Prince said, it keeps the bad people away.

[Adam Friedland]

One thing that kind of is a little bit upsetting to me is that enemy of the show, Mr. Hasan Hassan Peaker got you. He snuck in there and he gave you a tea that everyone. It's become a meme. Hasan got some store bought bottled tea that was warm and everyone's like, wow, he's such a great guy.

[Ilhan Omar]

It's one of my favorites, though.

[Adam Friedland]

Fine. But I've done one better.

[Ilhan Omar]

Okay.

[Adam Friedland]

I've gotten.

[Ilhan Omar]

It's a big challenge.

[Adam Friedland]

I've got an authentic Somali tea. We're gonna do a cooking segment, late night talk show style. Can we get the boys out here? And we're going to do a segment called Somali tea.

[Ilhan Omar]

Okay. We're actually going to make Somali tea.

[Adam Friedland]

We're going to make Somali tea. You're going to teach me how, but I'm also going to spill some Somali tea.

[Ilhan Omar]

Okay? All right.

[Adam Friedland]

Sounds good. I don't know if you.

[Ilhan Omar]

I don't know if Trump will approve of this, but.

[Adam Friedland]

What do you mean? Well, I heard Donald Trump's been getting fat. It's like that kind of thing. We're spilling tea. Hurry up, guys. She's not sure about the show yet. We gotta really win her over with this Somali tea.

[Ilhan Omar]

Did you hear it from Trump?

[Adam Friedland]

No, no, not that.

[Ilhan Omar]

I can't believe. Okay. I'm just saying we're not.

[Adam Friedland]

Racism.

[Ilhan Omar]

I'm just saying your tea can't come.

[Adam Friedland]

No, listen, sis, we're spilling the tea and it's gonna be piping hot.

[Ilhan Omar]

These things need to be grind. Would you have a.

[Adam Friedland]

No, no. Here are the leaves.

[Ilhan Omar]

These are special, but the cardamom needs to be broken.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, my God. I look like an idiot.

[Ilhan Omar]

Guys.

[Adam Friedland]

What do I turn this on extra hot? Do we have water?

[Ilhan Omar]

We need water.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, behind me.

[Ilhan Omar]

Oh, okay.

[Adam Friedland]

So, yeah, from a very.

[Ilhan Omar]

This is on.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Look. Look how expensive this looks, huh?

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Wow. This is just. I feel like a Jimmy Fallon. Huh? Well, maybe I can serve a little piping hot tea because I was on somalispot.com.

[Ilhan Omar]

okay.

[Adam Friedland]

And I heard that the truth about that Ashraf guy on TikTok is that he's rich because he and his brother work for own an NGO in Somalia. But you didn't hear that from me.

[Ilhan Omar]

Okay.

[Adam Friedland]

You get it?

[Ilhan Omar]

It's like t. I got it.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay. I don't know. A little bird.

[Ilhan Omar]

I'm struggling trying to keep things open. It's fine. We're good to go.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, that's so. What? A dash of clove.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. Looks like you put cinnamon cardamom. It needs to be broken up, but okay.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay. Just a little birdie told me that the president of Somaliland Abdurahman Mohammed Abdullah has announced a sweeping cabinet reshuffle involving new appointments, dismissals, and transfers across key ministries. But you didn't hear that from me, sis.

[Ilhan Omar]

Okay.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Wow.

[Ilhan Omar]

Okay.

[Adam Friedland]

We were putting you to work. You're the guest. This is going to be delicious. I'm sure. I don't know if you heard this, but Ethiopia and Eritrea have been saying that they have more beautiful lighthouses than us.

[Ilhan Omar]

Well, we have the longest coast in Somalia, so I don't know. I don't know.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. And I heard Eritrea said she had breathing issues, but really it was a nose job. Oh, my God, we're being so bad right now. So that's our bit. Somali tea. We're gonna. This is by far the stupidest thing we've ever done on the show. Can someone take the hot plate and pour us the t?

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, if you lift that. I can lift this.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay. Ow. No, this is terrible. This is very dangerous. You grab that. There we go. Wow. I'll leave this there, guys. That our first cooking segment has been an absolute winner. Justin, don't put in a solo cup. It's going to melt it. That's what Caleb told me. No, we have these.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

I was about to say, do we have muds? I've really enjoyed learning about you this episode, and I think that you're obviously. Do you feel like you're one of the most well known members of Congress?

[Ilhan Omar]

I mean, sure.

[Adam Friedland]

Would it be fair to say that you're used as a political cudgel?

[Ilhan Omar]

I might be a little bit of a boogeyman for the maga.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. And it started pretty much immediately, if I remember correctly.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yes. Right after I won my primary race for the state House. So nobody should have actually known who I was, but.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, I. Well, how did Maroon 5 find out who you were? I don't know if any of you know this, but in the Girls like you video, you are along with Ellen DeGeneres.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. J. Lo.

[Adam Friedland]

If I could be Cardi B. Cardi B. Yeah. Yeah, I guess. Like, when did you come to national prominence or something like that was obviously before you were in Congress.

[Ilhan Omar]

Well, when I won my state House race, they said I was the first Somali legislator to be elected in the United States. And I think people didn't distinguish the fact that I was a state legislator and not a member of Congress.

[Adam Friedland]

Really.

[Ilhan Omar]

And so everybody was congratulating me. I was getting phone calls from, like,

[Adam Friedland]

world leaders around the world on becoming the president of the United States. Yeah.

[Ilhan Omar]

And people were going to the Capitol trying to find my office.

[Adam Friedland]

And so everyone is very stupid. Well, was it like just a very generous headline? Did they not.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. I think that people don't. Most people don't know that state legislators and you know, because you're called a representative when you're a state legislator.

[Adam Friedland]

Right.

[Ilhan Omar]

And when you're in the House, you're also called a representative, so people, I think, just kind of confuse the two.

[Adam Friedland]

And you beat a lady who wanted to lower the voting age to 12, is that correct?

[Ilhan Omar]

Well, she was there for 44 years, so.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. But she said that 13 year olds should vote.

[Ilhan Omar]

She had some interesting ideas.

[Adam Friedland]

I think that's cool. I think kids rule. I think the maximum voting age should be 18.

[Ilhan Omar]

I have a pretty smart 13 year old and I'm not sure she's ready to vote.

[Adam Friedland]

I think she is. I think the kids rock and teachers suck and there's too much homework. Thirteen. That was my.

[Ilhan Omar]

They don't give as much homework as they used to when I was in high school now.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, boo hoo. I know that rocks.

[Ilhan Omar]

Oh, no. It's sad for a parent. I'm like, I want the same torture I went through for my kids to go through.

[Adam Friedland]

Did you have them at home for Covid?

[Ilhan Omar]

I did have them home for Covid. Four kids.

[Adam Friedland]

You were in the government and you had four kids at the Korea?

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, it was wild.

[Adam Friedland]

Were you losing your mind?

[Ilhan Omar]

It was actually more Entertaining, because I remember one time I was cooking lunch, and my youngest daughter, who was in elementary at the time, I think she was in third grade, was doing PE through the computer and, like. Computer pe? Yeah. And so I just, like, she was on her laptop at the dining room table, and I turned around, and she was doing jumping jacks. And it was. Yeah, it was a very weird thing to see her do. And then, like, to hear everyone else, like, doing it through the noise that was coming from the computer.

[Adam Friedland]

That must stink, though, that you can't, like, see your friends.

[Ilhan Omar]

That was painful.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. But it was a good bonding time for, I think, the four of them.

[Adam Friedland]

Do you think we afford kids enough sympathy for that? I think we only talk about their, like, gender, like, surgeries, but I don't think we talk about the fact that they went through a tough time growing up. No.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of, like, social interaction that was missed for a lot of the kids that went through Covid.

[Adam Friedland]

Are they weird? No. A little bit. You lost your mom young.

[Ilhan Omar]

I did.

[Adam Friedland]

So you were two.

[Ilhan Omar]

Two. Ish. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

So I guess, like, how did you. You had to teach yourself how to be a mother.

[Ilhan Omar]

I did. Yeah. I mean, and I think, you know, I was actually just talking to my youngest daughter about this. You know, I was raised by my dad and grandpa, and they were both strict, but they liked to talk to us as if we were adults. And so we, you know, were free to have opinions and debate with them, and it wasn't like they didn't consider it disrespectful.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Ilhan Omar]

And, you know, we had a lot of, like, autonomy as. As kids, and so that's kind of how I raise my kids. It's like, they know what not to do, but they're also very independent, and.

[Adam Friedland]

Thank you, Justin. I appreciate it. Great. What's the l' chaim in Somalia? What's the cheers?

[Ilhan Omar]

Oh, we don't do cheers.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh. Because it's. No. Yeah.

[Ilhan Omar]

Haram. Yeah. It didn't make it into our vocabulary.

[Adam Friedland]

I burned my tongue. So maybe.

[Ilhan Omar]

Salut.

[Adam Friedland]

Salut.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yes. We were colonized by the Italians, so there's a lot of Italian influence.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. One thing, when you were talking about your father, that kind of. I mean, my parents moved to America as well, and I like how to kind of communicate American culture. I know you moved here as a child, but, like, beyond being of citizens, single dad, he also had. Was raising his kids in this alien culture.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

And, you know, there's, like, a really cute part of your Book where you talk about, like, where you want to wear, like, cute clothes in high school. And he was like, fine with that. But he's like, but no kissing. Yeah, if you kiss, I'm out. I'm out on that.

[Ilhan Omar]

You know, he was out on a lot of things.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, me too. I remember in sixth grade, my parents got me regular underpants. And then sixth grade, you have to start changing for gym class.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

And so I asked my parents if I can get boxers, and my dad was like, do you. Why would a boy care about his underpants? I was like, I don't know. People are calling me gay. I'm not gay. And he's like, do you have body dysmorphia? I'm like, what does that mean? So I had boxers for pajamas, and I used to just.

[Ilhan Omar]

They do go from 0 to 100.

[Adam Friedland]

Immigrant parents. Nothing makes sense to them. Yeah.

[Ilhan Omar]

I do still have a little bit of that. Even though, like, I've been here for over 30 years, I still do have, like, the little bit of the immigrant parent. My kids are like, okay, yeah, relax. We were joking.

[Adam Friedland]

But you had to learn American.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yes.

[Adam Friedland]

We're hopping around a lot, because I want to get into your story before that, but what were the things that you could kind of educate? Was it the show BAE watch?

[Ilhan Omar]

I mean, I could watch anything.

[Adam Friedland]

I love tv.

[Ilhan Omar]

My dad didn't have any context to, like, what was on tv, what was appropriate or not appropriate. And he also had to work a lot, so he wasn't really home. And so I watched, like, Family Matters.

[Adam Friedland]

And you were raised on Urkel taught you.

[Ilhan Omar]

I was raised on everything that would come on TV after I got off school. So, yeah, just the TV was just on all the time. And, like. But. But I didn't speak English, and I was struggling because the only words when I came at the age of 12 that I knew.

[Adam Friedland]

Did I do that? Steve Urkel.

[Ilhan Omar]

No. I would learn that. I know the first words. It was hello and shut up.

[Adam Friedland]

Hello. Shut up.

[Ilhan Omar]

And that's. That's that fun when that's the only words you know in sixth grade, so that's so cute. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe your teacher wrote something in your

[Adam Friedland]

yearbook that I thought was adorable. I don't want to misquote it, but it said, like, ilhan, like, age 11. Hello. Shut up. Age 12. Hello. My name is Ilhan. Nice to meet you. It's like. It makes me want to cry. It's so cute.

[Ilhan Omar]

It went. Mr. Miller. It was very. Yeah, that was very cute.

[Adam Friedland]

So what, like, when Did, I suppose. Like, when did you first feel American? You know,

[Ilhan Omar]

I don't know if there's a moment, I believe, when I could communicate and, like, navigate life and feel like just like one of the other kids. Maybe when I felt like I was American, maybe that was like 14. 13. 14.

[Adam Friedland]

That's fast.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. Yes.

[Adam Friedland]

You came here at 11? No, 12. 12. So in two years you learned English?

[Ilhan Omar]

I was pretty fluent within, like, three to six months.

[Adam Friedland]

And you learned Baywatch. You learned.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, I would watch the TV with the captions on and then my sister and I would just have the dialogue that they were having on tv. And that was kind, like, it helped, I guess, not to develop a strong accent as well. But. Yeah, like, I think much of my English before, you know, I got into my formal education was like, context based.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. All my non American, like, family learned. Learned it from friends.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

And they'd be like, adam, you're such a chandelier. You're so sarcastic. I'm like, yeah, it's true. I am. I'm not, definitely not a Ross. I wish I was a Joey a little bit sometimes.

[Ilhan Omar]

Nobody wants to be a Ross.

[Adam Friedland]

Ross. What a schmuck. Schmuck.

[Ilhan Omar]

I also don't know if I could handle a Joey.

[Adam Friedland]

Joey. Why? He's so stupid.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Joey's like. You feel like. Yeah. Like you could toss him away.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. It was too painful to hang out.

[Adam Friedland]

It was fun while it lasted, Joey. But you're not. You're no thinker. I need someone more.

[Ilhan Omar]

We could talk for an hour. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Ilhan Omar]

And I'm a conversationalist, so I like people who could hold me.

[Adam Friedland]

And Joey would be like, I thought you were Somalier. You're like, Somalian. What's wrong with you, Joey? How do you even have a license to drive? You shouldn't be allowed to vote. You're spoken about so much, but I don't think people understand how much of a journey your life has been and potentially how it's made you the person you are today. Which is a person that's like, fuck you. I'm not going anywhere, you know? Yeah, we're born in Mogadishu. How old were you when the civil war broke out?

[Ilhan Omar]

8.

[Adam Friedland]

8. What were your memories of Somalia before that?

[Ilhan Omar]

Well, this is the thing that people usually get upset about because they're like, oh, she just glorifies her childhood. And, like, my childhood was pretty normal.

[Adam Friedland]

Like, not being in a war. That sounds pretty nice.

[Ilhan Omar]

The parts where that weren't. Where that wasn't. Yeah. Part of My life, I grew up in a very loud loving home. My mother. It's fascinating story culturally in Somalia, the tradition is if you get married, you have two options. Either you have your own home with your wife and your kids, or if you don't have enough resources, you move your. The husband moves his wife in with his family.

[Adam Friedland]

The in laws.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yes.

[Adam Friedland]

It's gotta be annoying. Well, or beautiful.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, it depends on who the in laws are. And my mother was the firstborn of her family and. And she wanted to help her dad economically. She wanted to help make sure her siblings were raised well.

[Adam Friedland]

She was an ethnic minority too.

[Ilhan Omar]

She was, she's of Yemeni heritage. And so she was very adamant that any suitor had to agree to move in with her family, which was a cultural. No, no. And so my dad, when supposedly she was there was this coffee shop that he would frequent after work and she would come by that coffee shop to go home. And he said it was love at first sight. He wanted to know who this woman was and started to show. He figured out where she worked and started to show up at her job and kept asking to talk to her. And she wasn't interested, but eventually said yes.

[Adam Friedland]

He wore her down.

[Ilhan Omar]

He wore her down. And then she made her demand that if they were to get married, he had to move in. And that was I suppose a hard choice for my father, but he was in love with her mother, with her mother and father and her siblings. I know. And he said yes. And I think, you know, as it would be was probably one of the best choices he made. And so he moved in. We were born in my grandfather's house. My grandmother died before I was born, so my mom had younger siblings that she had to help take care of as she was having kids. And so I grew up with my aunts and uncles along with my siblings. And so it was, it was a, it was a full house.

[Adam Friedland]

And you were the youngest too?

[Ilhan Omar]

I'm the youngest of seven, yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Wow.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Being a member of Congress and understanding what it's like to be a child in a war torn environment. What was that like as an 8 year old? I mean, what are your memories of that?

[Ilhan Omar]

It's distorting because like I said, I had a pretty normal childhood. My family was like middle class, upper middle class for Somalia Standard in the 80s. You know, I again, I lived with my mother before she passed who had full time employment. My father, my grandfather, my aunts and uncles who were all teachers. And so there's multiple salaries coming into our one household so we were pretty comfortable. And then, you know, we went from one day just being a normal kid going to school and playing, and the next day, you know, kids around your age are walking around with rifles and there's bombs dropping.

[Adam Friedland]

38 year olds. Well, 39 year olds. Shit. Eight.

[Ilhan Omar]

Eight year olds. Eight, nine year olds.

[Adam Friedland]

I know I seem like an eight year old. Yeah, I look eight, but I'm 39.

[Ilhan Omar]

Okay.

[Adam Friedland]

When you have a vote, I mean, I know that we're in a new kind of military operation, whatever the fuck that is. Do memories of like, hearing gunfire, do they inform your kind of morality or your understanding of, like, what the. What it means, what war is?

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, I mean, I do think of war through the lens of someone who survived one.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Ilhan Omar]

And I understand the lasting impacts of war. It's the displacement, it's the trauma that you can't get rid of. I mean, I still have ptsd. There's certain environments that trigger it. And I think for a lot of people, especially a lot of people in the United States, unless you've been a service member and been in combat zone, like people can't fully comprehend, so they're just like, oh, there's war and things get back to normal and everybody's fine. And nobody accounts for the destruction that happens. Nobody accounts for the mysterious of education that instability brings. The loss of jobs, the loss of infrastructure, the loss of your memories, the connection to family, to your history. You know, I get a lot of people who are like, yeah, you should be grateful that, you know, you have this beautiful life. I am grateful enormously that I have this beautiful life.

[Adam Friedland]

More so.

[Ilhan Omar]

But it comes with a cost, you know, And I think that a lot of people, because we are in America, a lot of people just see people who come here seeking a new life and just are like, why aren't you just really excited? It's like, yeah, they are excited, but they also have the human capacity to miss what was lost. You know, my great grandmother, who also lived with us and helped raise us, I didn't see her for many years after the war. She passed away without me saying goodbye to her. And I would have loved to have been by her side when she passed away, as I was with my grandfather and father.

[Adam Friedland]

I think there's this notion of what a refugee is. In learning about you and researching for this, obviously there's a xenophobic thing happening, which is like, for the first time, I was. I'm 38 or 39. Fuck, 39. It sounds so bad.

[Ilhan Omar]

I'm 40 and I'm turning 44 this year, so I don't. I don't know why you hanged up on the.

[Adam Friedland]

We're the same age.

[Ilhan Omar]

I'm older. 5.

[Adam Friedland]

It sounds like we're the same age. And you're in Congress.

[Ilhan Omar]

You would have been in eighth grade when I was graduating high school. So you're okay?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, we. You would have, you would have bullied me, probably.

[Ilhan Omar]

No, I was very much opposed to bullying.

[Adam Friedland]

We would have been best friends, obviously.

[Ilhan Omar]

I would have fought your bullies for you.

[Adam Friedland]

No, I didn't have any because I was so funny. All the bullies were laughing so much at my funny jokes.

[Ilhan Omar]

No, but I thought that's how people become funny is because they get bullied 100%.

[Adam Friedland]

100%. Wow.

[Ilhan Omar]

We having a therapy session? Is that what's happening right now?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. I'm gonna get on the couch. Well, no, I think there's. Obviously there's. It seems like this is the most xenophobic I've ever seen of the country. But also there's a notion even more so.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. Than his first term.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh. I mean, it's not him. It's just, it's people, you know, but on the other side, I think there's a notion of refugee. Like there's those like, posters like, refugees are welcome here. Almost as if, like, you know that, like you're lesser than kind of even in the liberal sense. Like, oh, please come, like, you know, like, come sit down.

[Ilhan Omar]

It's well meaning, though.

[Adam Friedland]

It's well meaning for sure. But it's, it's like, could be patronizing. Being a refugee has equipped you as an adult and is a. Oh, yeah.

[Ilhan Omar]

I mean, my resilience is because I

[Adam Friedland]

was a refugee and I, you know, like you were supposed to come twice and your security detail was supposed to do an extensive sweep. You had, you had a, like Secret service level security because there are multiple people that are incarcerated for plotting assassinations. Obviously. We saw at the town hall recently that. Yeah, but you, you fucking charged. You were like.

[Ilhan Omar]

I did.

[Adam Friedland]

I thought you were like, what, bitch?

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

You charged him.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, I did. The only thing I knew how to

[Adam Friedland]

do, what dawned on me was like. Yeah, because like she walked to Kenya as an eight year old or a nine year old, you know, like, close enough.

[Ilhan Omar]

I didn't walk all the way to Kenya, but. Yes.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, you don't say walk to them. Make it sound worse. What did you. What you got a. What you got a piggyback ride? You went to. What do you. Come on, just let me do the, okay, let me do the Jewish thing. She walked to Kenya. And then seeing Republican candidates for office, calling for your execution, and seeing the president fixated on you, I think it's fair to say. Is that where your bravery comes from, or am I off base?

[Ilhan Omar]

Well, I mean, and I think the. In the refugee story, I think, or any sort of displacement story through traumatic events is that is, you know, that old adage of, you know, what doesn't break you, makes you stronger. You know, there are people who do end up being broken. Right. But I think it did the opposite for me. I think it gave me a sense of, I survived all of these things that could have destroyed me, could have killed me, and so what is the point of having fear? So I kind of really don't have the normal sense of fear. I mean, I have irrational fear of certain things, but I don't have snakes. A little, like, claustrophobic.

[Adam Friedland]

Me, too.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that, like, because we had to hide under beds, you know, when the bombs would drop and, you know, or like, try to hold on to the side of a wall just to make sure if it collapsed that you could crawl out. But I think those tight corners being put in those tight corners, I think maybe helped me develop just a little bit of claustrophobia.

[Adam Friedland]

I feel bad for saying, me too, but.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, yeah, but I mean, there's different things that happen, right? Yeah, But I think, you know, when you. When you are, you know, eight, and you are crossing multiple checkpoints and people have guns pointed at you, you know, like, it. You just develop a sense of, like, I got through that. You know, what. What else could happen?

[Adam Friedland]

Reminds me a lot of when my dad wouldn't get me boxer shorts when I was in sixth grade. You know, we've both been. We have different stories and we've been through. I've been through a lot.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, that was very traumatic.

[Adam Friedland]

I didn't get. I didn't hit puberty until basically after 10th grade. So we've both been through a lot,

[Ilhan Omar]

you know, isn't that not the normal age?

[Adam Friedland]

I know you're grievance politics. No, it's not the normal age. Somebody in sixth grade, some of them are, like, with beards, and we're like, how are we the same grade? Two kids had sex in sixth grade, and I went home and cried. I don't know why I'm telling a sitting member of Congress this, but I cried. And I remember both their full names still to this day. I cried. I said, I thought we were just kids. Sex.

[Ilhan Omar]

You saw that? Did they tell you about it?

[Adam Friedland]

I just heard.

[Ilhan Omar]

What's the context of this?

[Adam Friedland]

Summer after sixth grade, you can beat both their names. El had sex. Oh, God. And I cried.

[Ilhan Omar]

They're gonna sue you.

[Adam Friedland]

I thought we were gonna try.

[Ilhan Omar]

They're gonna sue you for sharing this.

[Adam Friedland]

So tell us about Kenya. Did you chill with Malik Obama ever? No. Did you ever link up with Malik Obama? You know who he is? The brother?

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

He's like maga.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. No, no, I don't think he's a hater.

[Adam Friedland]

He's hating from Kenya. He's just tweeting and hating.

[Ilhan Omar]

I don't think we were even in

[Adam Friedland]

the same region of Kenya, but no. So your mentor in Kenya was Malik Obama? Is he related to Barack Obama, or is that, like, a common last name? So, like, Kim in Korea? I don't know. Your family got the visa to move to the States and to leave the refugee camp in Kenya. Also, you learned how to scrap. Is that where you learned how to scrap?

[Ilhan Omar]

No. I mean, I've got. I've got six older siblings. We've got three brothers, so.

[Adam Friedland]

And you've never lost one fight? Could you. You could beat up anyone in Congress.

[Ilhan Omar]

I don't. I don't want my brothers being upset about this, but.

[Adam Friedland]

But you beat they butts. I don't know why I said it that way. You beat your brother's butts to a little girl.

[Ilhan Omar]

We'll leave that to the imagination.

[Adam Friedland]

You were little, though.

[Ilhan Omar]

I was.

[Adam Friedland]

Did you do it in front of girls their age?

[Ilhan Omar]

No.

[Adam Friedland]

Thank God. They would have never lived that down.

[Ilhan Omar]

But I rarely fought girls. I mostly fought boys.

[Adam Friedland]

She's such a gangster.

[Ilhan Omar]

I'm sorry. Well, girls are scratched, and I didn't want my. I didn't want my face scratched.

[Adam Friedland]

You're a boxing MMA fan?

[Ilhan Omar]

I am a boxing mma.

[Adam Friedland]

Do you. Do you like my favorite boxer, Naoya Inoue? Do you like him?

[Ilhan Omar]

He's all right.

[Adam Friedland]

The monster. You think he's all right? The amount of power.

[Ilhan Omar]

Okay. All right.

[Adam Friedland]

Honestly, he's.

[Ilhan Omar]

I am a fan of the sport. I don't really have.

[Adam Friedland]

You like Bud?

[Ilhan Omar]

I don't.

[Adam Friedland]

Crawford.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yes.

[Adam Friedland]

He's the man.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yes. He's amazing. We watched his last fight against Canelo. We just watched Wilder, too. Oh, yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

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[Ilhan Omar]

My grandpa, your grandfather. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He said America was the only country in the world where you will eventually become an American. And it's interesting because he was very right about that. You know, I don't know too many places where an immigrant can absorb the identity of a new nation they arrive in.

[Adam Friedland]

I guess because it's not an ethnicity, right?

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Like German is an ethnicity and nationality.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. I know a lot of people use Japan as an example, which is crazy.

[Adam Friedland]

I mean, I guess that's the thing I always thought was awesome about America.

[Ilhan Omar]

I mean, the people here who would be, you know, the inhabiters of what was to become America were not calling themselves that. And so I think that creates the distinction where, you know, like a country like Somalia, the people are Somali, so everyone else that's there like they have their own ethnic backgrounds and stories, but there is a core group of people who are just Somali as a legislator,

[Adam Friedland]

that is, that's hijabi, black and a woman. Do you think that that is kind of on the surface? Why? So Much negative attention is paid to you. I mean.

[Ilhan Omar]

I mean, I would say less because I'm a woman and black, more because I'm an immigrant and visibly Muslim.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

One thing that's odd to me is, like, the Obama era.

[Ilhan Omar]

Right.

[Adam Friedland]

Like, you seem like a person that, like, it would be the State of the Union or something, and he'd point to the balcony, he'd be like, ilhan Omar was a refugee in Kenya, and she came to America and she worked her way up and became a success. It used to be something that we celebrate.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. But I think that is the backlash is because it was celebrated. Right. The reason earlier you asked, how does everybody know you? How do you come to national attention? Is because I was a first for a whole community that was barely recognized as being in the country. And here I am less than a little over 20 years after arriving here as a kid, as a member of Congress.

[Adam Friedland]

You're the first African refugee.

[Ilhan Omar]

I am the first African born.

[Adam Friedland]

You're the first Somalian.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

You're the first Muslim woman.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. To where?

[Adam Friedland]

Rashida.

[Ilhan Omar]

Together. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Rashida. But was it alphabetical?

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, but I'm also the first Muslim not born in the US to ever serve in Congress.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, so Rashida doesn't have that on you?

[Ilhan Omar]

No, she's born here.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, she's born here.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

It's kind of soft of Rashida.

[Ilhan Omar]

I mean, and Keith Ellison was born here, Andre Carson was born here, and Latifah Simon was born here. So there's four of us that are in Congress.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Ilhan Omar]

But everybody seems to only remember I'm. I'm the Muslim one that exists there because. Yeah, I'm visibly Muslim and I'm also an immigrant.

[Adam Friedland]

Do you think they're also haters because, like, I don't know, everyone's uglier.

[Ilhan Omar]

No, People are beautiful in their own ways.

[Adam Friedland]

What, you think Lindsey Graham is beautiful in his own way?

[Ilhan Omar]

I. I'm sure somebody thinks.

[Adam Friedland]

Lindsey, you work at an ugly office. Okay, let's be real. Have you seen some of these people? Why would we let them in charge of us?

[Ilhan Omar]

You can admit it is not a beauty contest.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay, listen, I'm not. Look at them. Some of the. Wait, you think Mitch McConnell got there because of pretty privilege?

[Ilhan Omar]

You think I got there because of pretty privilege?

[Adam Friedland]

No, I think you overcame a lot.

[Ilhan Omar]

Okay, well, thank you. I appreciate that. I didn't know where we were going with this.

[Adam Friedland]

I'm just saying, you want to work at an ugly place.

[Ilhan Omar]

One of my opponents when I first ran for offices was Busted. No. Said that I was gaining traction because I was attractive and you were like,

[Adam Friedland]

thanks, but no thanks.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, no, I appreciated the compliment, but I'm pretty sure it was more than

[Adam Friedland]

that when you got into the house. I think probably our audience's understanding of Nancy Pelosi is kind of probably negative. I don't know. People are very. Hate Congress in general. Can you tell us a little bit about, like, you know, what she told you about being a woman in government? Why are you laughing? I meant to say that. Why is she laughing at me?

[Ilhan Omar]

I don't know if she.

[Adam Friedland]

Did I say woman. How did I say it? Sorry, sorry. I've just never met someone in a Maroon 5 music video with Ellen and Gal Gadot and Millie Bobby Brown. Young Millie.

[Ilhan Omar]

No, I mean, Pelosi is a fascinating person because, you know, she's an only daughter to a family of, like, many boys.

[Adam Friedland]

Also a political family.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. And she had her own, you know, I think, strengthening growing up with lots of brothers in the same way that I did. She was very close with her father like I did. So we had sort of, you know, some of those kind of things in common. A little toughness in us that was intentionally built by our brothers and father. And, you know, I don't take bullshit. She doesn't take bullshit. So it was easy to connect in that way.

[Adam Friedland]

She said that they're going to be beat to you because you're a girl.

[Ilhan Omar]

No, but I mean, she's, you know, she also had to denounce me a few times.

[Adam Friedland]

You know, we all denounced you a few times.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, I think she understood that I didn't care.

[Adam Friedland]

I think the first time I heard about you was during the Benjamin's tweet. And something that really pissed me off was that I feel like a lot of people online, kind of people I would expect, even kind of took the bait on that one.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, it was a generational mission.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. But there was a soul voice that spoke out of the darkness on your behalf online. What was it like to hear that person standing up for you?

[Ilhan Omar]

Who's. Is that you, Adam? Okay.

[Adam Friedland]

I got in big trouble.

[Ilhan Omar]

Okay. Well, appreciated it.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, you're gonna get mad at me about what I said, but I was upset because people are lecturing you on antisemitism. Just to back up, you had a tweet about aipac, which is a lobbying organization. Right.

[Ilhan Omar]

Which uses very toxic lobbying.

[Adam Friedland]

Sure, we know him. We love him. No, but you got a tweet that was all about the Benjamins. Like Meeting that money and government.

[Ilhan Omar]

Also like from the song, also the rap song.

[Adam Friedland]

Also his name is Benjamin Netanyahu. I mean it worked on three. It was a triple entendre.

[Ilhan Omar]

Well, the other layers had no factor in. Outside of the. Yeah. Outside of the bars. But like I said, I think I was too young for a lot of the people who were commenting on it.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. They were like, Benjamin Franklin would never.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah,

[Adam Friedland]

yeah. And then I got upset because you were getting lectured by a certain daughter of a former president. And I did a mean tweet and she found it. I didn't even her. And so she said that I was an anti Semite. I tweeted, chelsea Clinton isn't even Jewish. She's just ugly. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

[Ilhan Omar]

Is that a real tweet?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. I'm sorry, but I was upset on your behalf and people are piling on. I regret it and I'm sorry. Jewish comedy, the basis of Jewish comedy is self deprecation.

[Ilhan Omar]

We.

[Adam Friedland]

I'm just saying we're ugly.

[Ilhan Omar]

We have that in common. The Somalis are very much.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Ilhan Omar]

We hate ourselves and we don't take ourselves too seriously.

[Adam Friedland]

Just seeing that one voice out of the darkness.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. It encouraged other people. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Was that. When did you know that it was going to be like this? I suppose like, did you. Because that was fairly early on was my. When did it die? First month, third week, first month at the job. Everyone's telling you that you're Adolf Hitler or something. When did it dawn on you it's going to be like this? Did it dawn on you then? Or was it your second month when they said you were IDI Amin or something? Your third month when they said you were Pol Pot or whatever.

[Ilhan Omar]

I mean, I don't know. I guess when I first ran I thought of all the horrible things that could happen. Wrote a list of 10, 10 worst possibilities and none of it has actually happened.

[Adam Friedland]

So what, were some of them bad? Bad ones.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Really?

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. I'm not gonna say it so somebody can do it to me. I'm not putting it out.

[Adam Friedland]

You don't want the bad guys to get any ideas. That's a good.

[Ilhan Omar]

That's smart. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean like I, you know, so I think I keep a level headedness because it's not as bad as I thought, which is kind of crazy because everybody's like, oh my God, this is horrible. And I'm like, eh, it's really not as bad as it could be.

[Adam Friedland]

The strange thing to me is that Somalis are such a small ethnic Minority in America. And there's a fixation that's surfaced, and Trump was talking about them in 2016, I believe, when he was running.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. He came to Minnesota.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Ilhan Omar]

And said, we were there without the permission of Minnesotans and we should all get out. You didn't ask, apparently.

[Adam Friedland]

Why Minnesota? What about Arizona or something?

[Ilhan Omar]

There are Somalis in Arizona.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. The smart ones. Why? You go up there with the snow. This is as different as possible.

[Ilhan Omar]

We're naturally nomads, which culturally means, you know, somebody usually goes to a place

[Adam Friedland]

and says, why do you nomad away from the snow?

[Ilhan Omar]

This is a good place for people to live and raise a family. And, you know, my family was settled in Arlington, Virginia, and that's where I went to middle school. And my older siblings, realizing that I'd missed four years of schooling, really wanted a good education system for me so that I could graduate on time and not get lost in the system. And they were doing research in Minnesota at the time, had really good education system, and so that's how we ended up in Minnesota. But the first family in Minnesota came from San Diego, actually.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, it's way nicer there in San Diego. Fabulous.

[Ilhan Omar]

The cost. He had a lot of kids and the cost of living was too much.

[Adam Friedland]

California, don't get me started.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. So he moved to Marshall. Minnesota sounds terrible. Where it was like he was paying 10% for rent for than what he was paying in San Diego, which meant he had the freedom to start a business. And I think he's the first Somali millionaire.

[Adam Friedland]

I want to talk about Minneapolis. I kind of have this, like. Well, first off, I just, like, I think it's valuable to hear, like, from. Obviously, two constituents of yours were killed. Right.

[Ilhan Omar]

By ICE and cpp.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah. I think first off, like, just tell us, like, what you saw transpire and in your district in your home city.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, I mean, the federal occupation of Minnesota was a little scary. We had over 4,000 ICE and CPP agents, and it was, you know, masked men patrolling the streets with machine guns, stopping cars, dragging people out of the cars, breaking windows, arresting people who were telling them that they were citizens, had their documents. They were legally in the United States. You know, obviously, they killed Renee Good and Alex Preddy for just monitoring and documenting the brutality that they were witnessing. So many people being disappeared, so many businesses being shut down, lots of empty schools. There was a third. A third of our schools had presence of children. It was very, very scary.

[Adam Friedland]

What's it like to be a leader of a community that's going through that

[Ilhan Omar]

it's terrifying, especially when you, yourself, your family members are also part of the targeted group. And so you're caring for your constituents and trying to provide as much information as you can and chasing down people who've disappeared through a maze of a system, trying to identify where they are, where they've maybe been taken to, because they were usually disappointed, disappearing people within three hours from the state. So that was very difficult for us to track people down. And then you're worried if one of your family members is going to be next.

[Adam Friedland]

Do you think the president watched a YouTube video and didn't realize that most Somalis, the vast, vast, vast majority of Somalis, are legally in Minneapolis or here? Legally?

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. I mean, that was the most baffling part. Right, because they said, what percentage of

[Adam Friedland]

the Somali community are legal? Like 98% or something?

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, 98. 98%. No, they said they were going through this mass deportation of Somalis, which is what Operation Metro Search was about. And they canceled the protective. They announced that they would cancel that, which they couldn't automatically cancel it because those are timed right. And so it was, for a lot of us, we were like, who are you mass deporting? Because, you know, none of us are deportable. And that was the thing that was disturbing about it, because they were going into these Somali restaurants, Somali businesses, Somali, you know, heavy neighborhoods, and they were like, basically snatching people, only to have to let them out within few hours. And then they said, okay, so anybody who came in through a refugee status since 2021 will take all of them to. To Texas and Louisiana. We will revet them. So they did that for a little over 4,000 people, and then they had to return all of them because their vetting was.

[Adam Friedland]

They were here legally.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. And they already been severely vetted. That vetting, when you're leaving a refugee camp, takes three to five years, sometimes up to 10 years. You know, they're checking your bone density. They're, you know, look, it's just. It's a very invasive vetting process. And so it was, again, just a waste of money and a way to terrorize people who were just adjusting to life in America.

[Adam Friedland]

I think a lot also about the. I mean, largely Latino people getting detained and disabled.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. I mean, we recently. They recently released a report. Of the 4,000 people they eventually arrested, less than 3% were Somali.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah. It just. It seems to me like an old man watched a YouTube video and then wanted to arrest a bunch of people that were here legally. And then. And then Latinos suffered the consequences.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. Who come. Who come from, you know, countries that are experiencing severe vulnerability. It's our, you know, it's the Venezuelans. It's people from Ecuador. A lot of young people who fled trafficking and gang life in Ecuador, being caught up in it.

[Adam Friedland]

You know, your family were lucky enough to get a visa to come here. You. Do you often think about what your life would be like had you not? When you think about that, does that give you a deeper understanding of those people?

[Ilhan Omar]

I mean, it's hard to predict what my life would have been like. It certainly wouldn't be like what it is today. So I don't know. I can't predict the future for an Ilhan that doesn't leave that camp when I did. I've been to other refugee camps in Kenya, where I've met some kids I knew from the refugee camp I was in who are raising kids in that refugee camp.

[Adam Friedland]

They're still refugees.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. So they have another generation of kids that are born into a refugee camp.

[Adam Friedland]

Wow.

[Ilhan Omar]

I don't even know what I would have been into at 12 or 15.

[Adam Friedland]

Do they get baywash?

[Ilhan Omar]

I don't think so.

[Adam Friedland]

Like, when you're a kid in school, you learn about periods of history where countries that had laws started taking people from their homes and locking them in cages. You think, when you're a kid, what do you do? And I've been thinking a lot about that nowadays, and I don't know what the answer is. And so what do we do? Like, about the people that are in Florida or, you know, in Texas or Louisiana, that are. Many of them here legally, that are dying in captivity, that are not being charged with crimes. So what do we do if it's happening now?

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, I mean, it's always the challenge. Right. Because you can think about what you would do, but then you've got the constraints of what the legal system that you're living under. People forget that brutality is oftentimes legalized. And when people say, why didn't you do this? Or why didn't these people do that? They forget that there was a whole system to make it hard for people to do anything, because then they would risk their own lives. They would risk their own captivity. And, you know, in Minneapolis, we've had people. I went to this shopping center that has housing attached to it, and I was meeting with the. The business association there, and one of them explained that the condos above, these businesses were choosing to allow some of the workers to stay with them so they didn't have to travel that they, you know, they felt safe to just be able to go to work in the same building instead of being exposed to the outside environment. And so, you know, there are places like Minneapolis where people have figured out a way to keep their neighbors safe. We had, you know, soccer moms, you know, organizing pickups and drop offs for the neighborhood children. We had block watches where parents organized themselves to take shifts to alert other people when ICE or CPP would be in the neighborhood. And so there are ways that people have figured out, but there is the risk. Right. You can get killed like Renee and Alex have. And that's the choices that people have to figure out. And it's something that people say to me all the time, like, you're an immigrant. You're risking a lot by being in the forefront of this fight. But to me, it is a choice I consciously make because I would want, if there was a member of Congress that represented me, I would want them doing everything that they could in defending me and speaking up for me and not just being worried about what would happen to them, but what happened to the people that they represent. And so it's a loaded thing to think about.

[Adam Friedland]

But, you know, it's oftentimes we're hearing from the Democrats, like, vote for us in the midterms if you want something to happen. Right. But I mean, this was a program under Obama. You know, child separation was happening under Biden. So. So do you, as a member of that caucus, have faith in the party? Were you to be successful in the midterms to close the places, shut the places down where people have been sent without due process and are dying? Is that possible?

[Ilhan Omar]

I do believe when you think about the mass deportation program under Obama and private detention centers becoming a thing under Obama, you now see Democrats finally realizing that we cannot create systems that can be exploited by evil.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Ilhan Omar]

To them, they thought at the time, you know, this was cost saving or it was a way to expedite or to do something in a way to reform the system. But they gave a playbook to the most evil people like Stephen Miller, who have now allowed these detention centers. And even with the first Trump administration, where people dying in there and covering up, it's normal. And so sometimes being killed in these detention centers without accountability, where you can have masked agents, and we're now just begging for the bare minimum of, like, can you go back to what is actually legally required for you to do? And so I do see now when Democrats say put us back in charge, that it is about reining this in it is about recognizing that we've allowed for a system that could be abusive to be abusive. And we have Republicans right now who are in charge who are refusing to exercise any of the checks and balances that are within their purview. And so Democrats are not asking for much. All they're asking for is allow us to at least have a check and balance. Which, you know, at this moment, I think it's a huge selling point because it just feels like we are living with a one man rule, and that's not, you know, what America is supposed to be.

[Adam Friedland]

I guess I'll close with this one last thing. All right.

[Ilhan Omar]

I know that answer. Like, it's not the most satisfying thing, but, you know, with the.

[Adam Friedland]

A lot of your boys suck, don't they?

[Ilhan Omar]

But it's just. It's like, it's. Yeah, we can't pass these great policies because obviously we have Trump for president in the next two years, even if we were to win the majority. But what we can do is make it difficult for him to have this one man rule.

[Adam Friedland]

Have you met him?

[Ilhan Omar]

No, no, no.

[Adam Friedland]

What do you say to you meet him?

[Ilhan Omar]

I'm not sure. It changes by the day.

[Adam Friedland]

What would you say? Just right. What are you feeling right now? Say, I'm Trump. Hey, what's up? I'm Trump. I've been telling people to kill you.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, I might, like, actually curse him out in person.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Say the cusses.

[Ilhan Omar]

I'm not gonna.

[Adam Friedland]

We'll beep them.

[Ilhan Omar]

No, see.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay. All right, we'll cut it. Just say the cusses. Congresswoman. Just say the. I've never heard. We don't. We. We don't allow cussing on the show. But this is one time I think we can make an exception. Let's hear those cusses. All right. You sharing your story? I think you are kind of an example of what is great about America, that you can make a success of yourself. You could go to college at the Mall of America. How did you. How did you find out that the college at the Mall of America wasn't on the up and up? Were you at a sorority?

[Ilhan Omar]

No.

[Adam Friedland]

I heard that you rushed Victoria's Secret, but you got into Hot. You got into Hot Topic. You were the weird girls. The weird girl sorority.

[Ilhan Omar]

Absolutely not.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, me and the brothers at Hollister, we were fucking. We were doing beer bongs. You went to college at a mall?

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

You might be the first in Congress. Mall college

[Ilhan Omar]

called the National American University. It was one of those, you know, exploitive.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Ilhan Omar]

Jared Kushner owned a lot of schools, and they.

[Adam Friedland]

Kushner, Wyckoff got this, you think in Pakistan?

[Ilhan Omar]

It's quite possible.

[Adam Friedland]

I think they got this.

[Ilhan Omar]

I don't think so, no. No. I have no faith. But it was one of those schools where they preyed on immigrants. First time? Yeah, first time. College. You'd be the first one to go to college in your family. Did you live on campus or veterans? No. No. And that was the selling. That was the selling point because it was like they had this jingle. It was like, one night, one day. Saturday's all right.

[Adam Friedland]

How did you not know that this place was on the up and up? They have an amusement park.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, but I worked at the mall. I could go do my place called Leather Limited.

[Adam Friedland]

Where?

[Ilhan Omar]

Leather Limited.

[Adam Friedland]

What is that? That sounds hoardy.

[Ilhan Omar]

It was a.

[Adam Friedland]

That sounds haram to me.

[Ilhan Omar]

No, it was. It was a leather. It was a leather jacket store. Oh, they sold leather jackets and bags and purses.

[Adam Friedland]

Nice. You got an suitcase employee discount still or.

[Ilhan Omar]

No, I did. And I bought my dad, like, a lot of leather stuff.

[Adam Friedland]

A full, like, harness.

[Ilhan Omar]

One of the leather jackets with the fur. The winter leather jacket with the fur.

[Adam Friedland]

Daddy.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. And I got him, like, a. A suitcase for him to.

[Adam Friedland]

Is. He's proud of you?

[Ilhan Omar]

My dad passed away. He was very proud.

[Adam Friedland]

Was he proud of you? Was he proud of you?

[Ilhan Omar]

Yes. Yes, he was very proud.

[Adam Friedland]

I like the section of your book where he said that it's political science is a stupid.

[Ilhan Omar]

That was my grandpa.

[Adam Friedland]

Was that your grandpa?

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Sorry.

[Ilhan Omar]

My grandfather was like, politics is something you do. It is not something you study.

[Adam Friedland]

He's right. It's stupid. I studied it, too. What a waste.

[Ilhan Omar]

I agree. I don't think I would like.

[Adam Friedland]

What am I doing with that?

[Ilhan Omar]

One of my kids actually study poly. Science.

[Adam Friedland]

No, it's moronic. The science.

[Ilhan Omar]

Do it. Just do it.

[Adam Friedland]

I have some beakers and Bunsens.

[Ilhan Omar]

The science is in the action of doing politics. But I eventually graduated from a school called NDSU in Fargo, North Dakota.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Carson Wentz. Carson Wentz.

[Ilhan Omar]

Oh, yeah,

[Adam Friedland]

whatever.

[Ilhan Omar]

They had a great football team.

[Adam Friedland]

Were you there with Carson Wentz?

[Ilhan Omar]

I mean. Yeah. You know, I wasn't hanging out with football footballers.

[Adam Friedland]

No. You're with the nutrition club.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. I also had two young kids to take care of. I didn't really do much hanging out in college because I was a young mom.

[Adam Friedland]

So you would bring your kids to the club?

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, I was in a lot of clubs and would bring them with me.

[Adam Friedland]

You take them to the club.

[Ilhan Omar]

Oh, like student clubs?

[Adam Friedland]

You would go to the club with your kids. She's out of control. Wait till Tucker gets away. Someone said something to me. I spoke to people that know you, okay? And someone said something to me that's stuck with me, okay? And granted, I did this five months ago and then two bl.

[Ilhan Omar]

Where are you guys finding these people that know me?

[Adam Friedland]

Who.

[Ilhan Omar]

Where are you people finding these people

[Adam Friedland]

who know me by apac. Guys have got me a couple contests.

[Ilhan Omar]

I don't think those people know me.

[Adam Friedland]

Someone that knows you has said to me that every day for you is lived truly. Not in like a self help book way, but truly, like it could be your last. And that stuck with me.

[Ilhan Omar]

Who's this person? I mean, I think we should. I don't know if that's such a great. You know, I think we should all live every day as if, you know, might be our last day.

[Adam Friedland]

Just enjoy. Not all of our interns have to go to therapy because they're picking up the phone all day.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah, I don't go to therapy. I don't go to therapy.

[Adam Friedland]

I don't know your interns.

[Ilhan Omar]

I don't think so.

[Adam Friedland]

You got to send them to therapy, I'll tell you that.

[Ilhan Omar]

No, I mean, can you imagine what they're hearing? I have staff that have been. Majority of my staff has been with me since I'd gotten to congress.

[Adam Friedland]

You're such an immigrant, mom.

[Ilhan Omar]

And therapy is.

[Adam Friedland]

You're. You're anti therapy.

[Ilhan Omar]

I am not. But I'm. What I am saying. What I am saying is that I have people who naturally are like, this is crazy. And I'm not gonna let it. Like, I'm not gonna internalize any of this stuff. And we mainly feel bad for the crazy people who call into our office and spend that much time thinking about us. So, you know, I don't. I like to believe, just like me, everyone in my office is just like, these people are crazy. Like, I don't think they take it home with them because if they did, I think a lot of them would have like left the office. And we rarely have people who quit our office.

[Adam Friedland]

I think it's. If you'll allow me, I think it's just really great to see an example. It's a shitty time of one person who despite all this is just like, fuck you. I have every right to be here as much as you do. And I don't think that. I mean, I think it's a testament to your resilience. And I genuinely me going through that Adam Friedland is. We should. I want to send him to Guantanamo. What the hell?

[Ilhan Omar]

What would you have done if the president every day was.

[Adam Friedland]

I would have laughed at all his jokes.

[Ilhan Omar]

Okay, there you go.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. That's what you do when you have a boss that's an asshole, but not very smart. You say, that was hilarious, sir. Yeah. I would have gotten away with doing no work for 40 years at the.

[Ilhan Omar]

But, I mean, if he was saying the stuff he says, like, about me,

[Adam Friedland]

about you, I would have. I don't know.

[Ilhan Omar]

It wouldn't just be like, okay, this man's crazy.

[Adam Friedland]

No, I think. I think it's really important for someone to say, I have every right to be here. You know?

[Ilhan Omar]

What's he gonna do?

[Adam Friedland]

He's gonna drive these. These nutso's nuts, you know?

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Someone called me after Kirk.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

And they said, do you have security? I'm like, what does this have to do with me? Me for Charlie. If someone did that for Charlie, I was the me.

[Ilhan Omar]

Yeah. Do you do one of those, like, come debate me things?

[Adam Friedland]

No, I don't want to talk to kids. They're terrible. What does he yell? He yells at. Yelled at babies. The best. We'll cut that. I really appreciate your time. I've been really excited about this one.

[Ilhan Omar]

Likewise.

[Adam Friedland]

Did you have fun?

[Ilhan Omar]

I did.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay. We're gonna do another cooking demonstration.

[Ilhan Omar]

And the tea turned out great, if I say so myself.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay, well, you were complaining about the cloves.

[Ilhan Omar]

They turned out okay. A little tangy because we didn't get to crush them.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. You can't wait with her, guys. Ilhan Omar, it's been a pleasure. I hope you enjoyed it.

[Ilhan Omar]

I did.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. It's better than Hasan.

[Ilhan Omar]

Is there a competition?

[Adam Friedland]

Yes. Sam.