Now, let's talk about Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. She is speaking out after federal agents searched her home. Okay. She says the administration is trying to intimidate immigrant communities and to discourage people from voting. But Omar says that Minnesota will not back down. Listen.
To intimidate us to stop the base of the Democrats to feel like, okay, if I am an immigrant myself, a naturalized citizen, yes, or I come from an immigrant heritage, right? Like I could be a person that people might think I'm undocumented, then I better stay home. And you know, as I said earlier, almost every indication when it comes to voting, early voting that we're getting is that it's up and up and up. That people are furious, people understand what they're trying to do, and no one here in Minnesota is going to allow them to intimidate us.
And Omar was also asked about the man at the center of the long-running, unproven allegations concerning her marriage and whether the two were related at all. Here's her response.
Was this man that was your husband? When did they start saying that he was your brother? Why?
It started with the Somali blog. That I don't know if it still exists, but somebody put in there that, you know, that he had to have been my brother or something to that effect. And right-wing conspiracy theorists in Minneapolis got a hold of it and they just kind of went and like found random people who were like, 'She introduced us, you know, she introduced him to us and said he was her brother.' Which is, you know, insane. I mean, I don't know those people that they talk about.
He was not... You were not related to him at all.
There's not... like there's not some weird kernel of truth that threw some game.
Interesting. Because this all started with a rumor, and it appears that this administration is working on rumors via rumors. Again, all of this has been investigated in 2019. This is not anything new, and nothing was found in 2019. And so, if you look at the polls, though, right? Look, there are people who believe that Trump is targeting Omar to hurt her politically. And I think... do we have a poll from Minnesota? Anyways, we should have a poll from her state, excuse me, Michigan. And I would just like to know...
Why they are doing this. That's not the poll. That's a Couchy thing. And so over at Kalshi, I think that Omar is at 94% to win Minnesota's fifth congressional district. Her Republican opponent, John Nagel, is at 5.1% to win. So the polls have her winning. The whatchamacallit, the prediction markets have her winning. Those estimates that I showed you are not numbers, but they can move. Okay? And so right now, though, Omar remains the overwhelming favorite. So if you want to go check that out, you can check out the polls. Just go look at the polls. Also check out Kalshi. Check it out on the app. I like to compare both of them because I want to see exactly where people stand right now, what they're thinking is going to happen, where they're placing certain markers on this.
And so I want to bring back in Michael Fanone. Michael, when you look at Ilhan Omar, you have been texting me about this, and people are believing that this is real and there's some kind of evidence. Her father is dead. If you heard her in this interview last night, it's like, wait a minute, what's going on here? Her dad is not here. She was 12 years old when she came. What is this?
Well, first I think there's no strategy behind going after Ilhan Omar. I think this is just... this is personal for Donald Trump. It would be a feather in his cap if he could, you know, take away her citizenship, somehow get her deported. But simply disparaging her and putting her through this process, I think, is like a close second for Donald Trump personally.
And you know, as you know, I feel like I should be interviewing you about this, having been targeted by the federal government. You know, in normal times, if there was going to be an investigation, law enforcement would keep the investigation quiet until an arrest or an indictment was handed down, because law enforcement recognizes the fact that there's a lot of implications that go along with announcing that type of an investigation publicly. And this is by design. I mean, this is the purest example of the weaponization of federal law enforcement under this administration, is creating this public spectacle.
My understanding of the investigation was predicated on some allegedly falsified documents that were 25 years old, that Ilhan Omar never even participated in the completion of, because she was a child, that they were done by her father. And then somehow that landed them a search warrant, which the standard for a search warrant is, I think, to the average American, surprisingly low. We also have seen, as in your case, Don, the willingness of this administration, or law enforcement on behalf of this administration, to shop for judges that are willing to sign off on something like this. I think... what, did they deny the warrant in your case? How many times? Two, three times?
Yeah, three times. That would never happen. Never happened. If I did that when I was a law enforcement officer, if I got a warrant and I presented it to a judge and the judge denied that warrant, that's the end of it. Unless I can add some substantial facts and circumstances to bolster that warrant — substantial being the operative word there — I cannot represent that warrant to anyone, or the Department of Justice would never sponsor me as a witness ever again. I would be put on what was, you know, colloquially known as the Lewis list, which would prevent me from testifying. I would essentially be ineffective as a cop.
We've seen that now in dozens of cases where federal law enforcement agents have shopped for judges that were, you know, I'll just say, ideologically aligned with this administration to get them to sign these warrants. And then once you have the warrant, you know, you're looking for these documents or information. They can search anything and everything. They can search your electronic devices. We obviously saw that they searched your home, and who the hell knows? You know, that's why I texted you and said this is a fishing expedition. I mean, they're looking for anything and everything that they can use — not even just for criminal prosecution, just to try to disparage her and to drag her through the mud, so to speak.
And then, you know, you see these images that you're playing right now for the audience, of federal agents, some in tactical gear, outside of this congresswoman's home. I guarantee you that was probably playing 24 hours a day non-stop on Fox News, Breitbart, and all these far-right... And then it just, you know, to them, to their audience, that's the 12 jurors voting guilty. That's all they needed to see. They just needed to see federal agents raiding a home, and now they're automatically thinking that this woman is guilty of something. And it validates Donald Trump's racist attacks on her and the Somali community in Minnesota.
I think you're right. That's what I've been saying to... anytime somebody pitches me the story, it's like every little thing, her sister has been questioned or whatever, and I'm like, okay, okay. And then I look, and it's only Fox News and the Post reporting, or just any little development in the case. And it's like, of course, they took their devices. That's what they want. They want people to see this. They want you to report that as if it is real. As if it's real. And look, I don't know. I don't know what's real or not. Let's see. Yeah, I don't know what's real or not. However, you know, we'll see. We'll get to that story that you guys are talking about. We'll do that later. I don't think it warrants right now. Anyways, Michael, thank you. I appreciate you.
Thank you, Don. Always good to see you. I'm glad you're feeling better.
