Regime Raids Rep. Omar’s Home – The Tuesday AM Quickie 10/13/26
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10/13: Emma and Sam are hosting today. Their guest is Akbar Shahid Ahmed, diplomatic correspondent at The Washington Sun and author of Crossing the Red Line: Biden, His Advisors, and Israel's War in Gaza.
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Today you’ll read about Elon Musk attempting to buy the midterms; Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle attempting to sweet-talk businessmen at Davos; and a GOP senator, who as a doctor sued his patients for unpaid bills, attempting to stiff a bakery and get hundreds of brownies and cookies for free.
THE BIG NEWS
Regime Raids Ilhan Omar’s Home Over Far-Right Immigration Fraud Conspiracy Theory
Federal agents raided progressive Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s DC home on Monday morning, a severe escalation of the xenophobic, anti-Muslim and anti-Black racial hatred Trump and his henchmen have directed at her for a decade. Omar is a refugee from Somalia and the first Somali American lawmaker; according to NBC News and the Washington Post, the raid was part of a years-long investigation into whether she had entered the US using false immigration paperwork. She was just 12 years old when her family came to the US in 1995 and was naturalized more than 25 years ago.
The AP and the Guardian note that Republicans have for years spread rumors that she committed immigration fraud and that her ex-husband is her brother, conspiracy theories she has repeatedly denied and called “disgusting lies.” She also says that every time Trump hatemongers about her, the number of death threats she gets “skyrocket.” In January, a man attacked her with a syringe of liquid during a town hall meeting, which was thankfully identified later as apple cider vinegar.
Agents on Monday clogged Omar’s street with shiny black SUVs and blocked it off; they carried away items from her home in boxes labeled with “seized property evidence.” According to the Washington Post, the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigation, conducted the raid under a court-authorized warrant from the Department of Justice. The warrant did not name Omar or give a reason for the search.
Omar said on social media that she was OK and identified exactly what the morning raid was. “Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement,” she said. “For 10 years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation.” She added, “I will not be silenced.”
House Democratic leadership issued an egregiously limp response to the raid, saying that it “raises serious questions.” How about “The white supremacist regime of bigot Donald Trump is waging a campaign to get a sitting congressperson killed and we will punish all involved to the furthest extent of the law when we retake power in November”? How about something like that?
Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham responded with strength, saying that Trump is escalating his “continued efforts to weaponize our federal government against Minnesotans,” who stood up against his deadly ICE terror campaign earlier this year. Omar is a former union member, “and we believe an injury to one is an injury to all. If Donald Trump can do this to her, he can do it to any other American citizen.” Burnham also called out the fact that Omar is up for reelection in less than a month. As Democracy Docket noted, the Department of Justice’s own rules caution federal officials from taking action or creating the perception of taking action that could affect an election.
“It’s no coincidence this latest action, coupled with the President’s recent calls for violence against the Somali-American community, comes just three weeks before an election his party is expected to lose,” Burnham said. “This is a desperate attempt to sow division and hate, and Minnesotans won’t fall for it.”