A Fox News segment was torched as racist after a host and guest riffed about Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar buying a one-way ticket back to Somalia.
The Minnesota lawmaker, who grew up in the East African nation, has faced conservative backlash and racist attacks after she blasted Donald Trump’s military deployments in Los Angeles. She said the U.S. is “turning into one of the worst countries” and likened it to a dictatorship.
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade—who was guest-hosting The Ingraham Angle—and contributor Ben Domenech discussed Omar’s comments on Tuesday and suggested she should leave if she doesn’t like it.
“I looked up on KAYAK today, the direct one-route ticket from Minneapolis to Mogadishu and it was less than $3,000, so she can afford it on her congressional salary,” Domenech said. “So, if she wants to go back there, go for it.”
Kilmeade commented, “If you do take a 747 from Minnesota to Somalia, you will be the only one on the plane.”
“So, it will be like, she can probably sit first class and book a coach ticket,” he added. “So, it’s just these people are so ungrateful for the country.”
A clip of the exchange was highlighted by liberal media watchdog Media Matters, and shared by former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, who called it “pure unadulterated racism.”
Just pure unadulterated racism on Fox:https://t.co/vLJlZV2JLP
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) June 18, 2025
Omar’s family fled Somalia’s civil war when she was eight. She was the first African refugee to be sworn into Congress when she took office in 2019.
She made the remarks in question during an interview on Democracy Now! last week, after Trump ordered the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops to quash protests in L.A. over his harsh immigration crackdown.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, who did not want or ask for the military intervention, said the move was intended to manufacture unrest to help Trump further his anti-immigration narrative.
The chaos unfolded in the days preceding a military parade in Washington, D.C., on Trump’s birthday, to celebrate the Army’s 250th anniversary.
“Can you imagine that image that is going to be coming out of our country?” Omar said. “I mean, I grew up in a dictatorship, and I don’t even remember ever witnessing anything like that, to have a democracy—a beacon of hope for the world—to now be turned into one of the worst countries, where the military are in our streets, without any regard for people’s constitutional rights, while our president is spending millions of dollars prompting himself up like a failed dictator with a military parade.”
That set off a wave of vitriol on social media, including from GOP Congressman Greg Steube of Florida, who wrote on X: “Maybe go back to Somalia then?”
“I hear Mogadishu is nice this time of year,” he added.
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