Fox News host Tucker Carlson ended his show on Tuesday with an attack on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), claiming that she hates America and is “living proof that the way we practice immigration has become dangerous to this country.”
“Ilhan Omar has an awful lot to be grateful for, but she isn’t grateful, not at all. After everything America has done for Omar and for her family, she hates this country more than ever,” said Carlson, before launching into vicious rhetoric.
Omar moved to the United States when she was a child after living in a Kenyan refugee camp. She is one of three Muslim members of Congress.
Carlson, referencing a recent Washington Post piece on Omar, painted the Somali-American as “enraged” by America and full of “undisguised contempt for the United States and for its people.”
“Virtually every public statement she makes accuses Americans of bigotry and racism,” he said. “This is an immoral country, she says. She has undisguised contempt for the United States and for its people. That should worry you, and not just because Omar is now a sitting member of Congress.”
“Ilhan Omar is living proof that the way we practice immigration has become dangerous to this country. A system designed to strengthen America is instead undermining it. Some of the very people we try hardest to help have come to hate us passionately.”
Carlson continued his attack on Omar by saying that “no country can import large numbers of people who hate it and expect to survive” and that viewers should “be grateful” for the Minnesotan, before adding: “Annoying as she is.”
“She’s a living fire alarm, a warning to the rest of us that we better change our immigration system immediately, or else,” he ended.
The “Tucker Carlson Tonight” host has long had Omar as a target of his ire. Just a few examples include his February 2019 accusation that she continuously picks fights and his May 2019 label of her as a “symbol of America’s failed immigration system.”
Outside of Carlson, Omar ― one of the first two Muslim women in the House of Representatives ― has been embroiled in controversy for much of this year. In addition to receiving death threats, she’s been accused of anti-Semitism from politicians on both sides of the aisle, targeted via Twitter by President Donald Trump and villainized by the New York Post.
In response to Carlson, Omar tweeted that it was “kinda fun watching a racist fool like this weeping about my presence in Congress.”
It’s unclear whether or not Carlson’s rhetoric about Omar will impact his advertisers, as his words have lost him ad dollars in the past. However, they have certainly made waves on social media, as many called Carlson’s rant “racist “and “anti-Semitic.”
Justin Wells, senior executive producer of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” defended Carlson’s remarks, telling HuffPost in a statement: “Anyone who values democracy and free expression should be gravely concerned when members of Congress demand that their critics be silenced. Tucker will address this on tonight’s show.”
This story has been updated with a statement from Justin Wells.