Congresswoman Ilhan Omar joked with streaming personality Hasan Piker on Monday. The politician said the media keeps its cameras trained on them due to the fact that viewers are simply sick and tired of seeing “Botox faces.” Additionally, she downplayed this month’s federal raid of her Washington residence as a normal week.
The Minnesota Democrat spoke from a couch in a green room during Piker’s Twitch broadcast, just before they took the stage at an event in Minneapolis organized by state Senator Omar Fateh. Video clips of their conversation circulated on social media Monday night.
As Piker said, the media tends to highlight everything they do; Omar implied it may have something to do with their looks.
“Well, yeah, it’s very frustrating because like …,” Omar began, “they get tired of looking at their, you know, Botox faces, so … Let’s see if we can get some nice natural …”
“So you’re saying if the fascists were hotter, then they would get more …,” Piker responded.
“There would be less of us on TV,” Omar responded.
“Yeah, OK,” Piker said.
“That’s what I think,” Omar stated.
“That’s a fair assessment,” Piker said.
Then Piker asked how she was coping. “How are you holding up with everything going on? You’re good?”
“Yeah,” Omar said.
“You’re strong as ever, resilient as ever?” Piker continued.
“Yeah,” Omar responded. “It’s been, it’s been, you know, let’s just say tumultuous past week or so. It tracks for me. That’s kind of most of my weeks.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Piker said.
Homeland Security Investigations agents showed up at Omar’s Washington residence around 6 a.m. on Oct. 12, and executed a search warrant as a part of a federal investigation into potential immigration fraud and false statements on her immigration documents. The Justice Department said the warrant was judicially authorized but did not reveal additional information.
Omar, born in Somalia and naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2000, has denied doing anything wrong. The investigators are looking into documents filed when she was a child, including the forms that were completed by her deceased father, according to media reports. Last month, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the investigation involves whether Omar lied on her immigration forms.
In an interview given last week, Omar said that the agents spent four to five hours in the house, confiscating 17 items, which included phones, notebooks, a vintage camera, and a Somali language children’s book. She was insisting on being “confident in the fact that I didn’t do anything wrong” and planning to move out since it was making her feel unsafe.
Omar, who is frequently targeted by President Donald Trump, described the investigation as politically motivated. Hours after the raid, she wrote on social media that it was an “attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.” No charges were revealed following the raid, and the investigation is ongoing.
Monday’s event, the first edition of “I’m the Host Now” conversation series organized by Senator Omar Fateh, attracted criticism from Republicans, Jewish organizations, and several Minnesota Democrats regarding Piker’s past statements regarding Israel, Hamas, and the Sept. 11 attacks.
Congresswoman Angie Craig called Piker’s rhetoric “polarizing and dangerous,” and Senator Amy Klobuchar, running for governor, said through her spokesman that “a number of his statements were reckless and unacceptable.” Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas has expressed its “disgust” at the event. Republican John Nagel, Omar’s opponent in the November 3 election, claimed that the event was normalizing antisemitism.
Omar’s office defended the event as an opportunity to reach young voters, noting that early voting among those under 40 has fallen.
Ilhan Omar represents Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, which encompasses Minneapolis.
