Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) criticized the Trump administration’s use of the military, saying the U.S. is turning into “one of the worst countries.”
In an interview late last week, Omar noted the deployment of U.S. troops to quell protests in Los Angeles took place in the same week that the administration held the military parade, which celebrated 250 years of the U.S. Army’s existence, and which happened to fall on President Trump’s birthday and Flag Day.
“Can you imagine that image that is going to be coming out of our country? I mean, I grew up in a dictatorship, and I don’t even remember ever witnessing anything like that,” Omar said, referring to her early childhood in Somalia.
“To have a democracy, a beacon of hope for the world, to now be turned into one of the, you know, one of the worst countries, where the military are in our streets without any regard for people’s constitutional rights, while our president’s spending millions of dollars propping himself up like a failed dictator with a military parade — it is really shocking,” she continued.
Omar said that image should inspire Americans to speak out publicly.
“It should be a wake-up call for all Americans to say, ‘This is not the country we were born in. It’s not the country we believe in. This is not the country our Founding Fathers imagined, and this is not the country that is supported by our Constitution, our ideals, our values.’”
“And we should all collectively be out in the streets, rejecting what is taking place this week,” she added.
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