Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Trump campaign manager dubs Ilhan Omar 'most dangerous' Democrat, who is making Biden's party unrecognisable

In appeal to Trump’s base, Bill Stepien baselessly claims Democrats 'don't recognise’ how extreme party has become

Gino Spocchia
Tuesday 27 October 2020 12:22 GMT
Comments
Trump says 'Biden will turn Minnesota into a refugee camp' as crowd chants 'lock her up' about Ilhan Omar

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has been dubbed “the most dangerous Democrat” by Donald Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien, who suggested that Joe Biden’s party was now unrecognizable.

In another Republican attack on Ms Omar, Mr Stepien argued that Minnesota’s Muslim represenative was both “dangerous” and “extreme” - largely without any basis.

“We know what she wants to do, she wants to defund the police,” Mr Stepien said on a phone call with news outlets, Newsweek reported. “She is pushing for the Green New Deal,”

“Everywhere else in the state you have common-sense Democrats who don't recognise Joe Biden's Democrat Party anymore,” he continued. "They don't recognise what it's become."

Those remarks come after repeated attacks made by Mr Trump against Ms Omar, whose progressive platform saw her elected to Congress in 2018.

"We're going to win the state of Minnesota because of her," the president said last month. “She’s telling us how to run our country.”

Whilst his attacks on progressive Democrats are nothing abnormal, his comments on Ms Omar have appeared racist on multiple occasions.

“She comes from a place that doesn’t even have a government and then she comes here, she tells us how to run our country, and she hates our country," said Mr Trump in October, despite Ms Omar being both a Congresswoman and a US citizen.

Mr Stepien said last week that Minnesota was still within the Trump campaign’s sights, despite polls showing Mr Biden ahead.

“You won’t be able to turn on the TV without seeing a Trump ad,” he said on Friday. “We now have heavy air cover to cover the ground troops that have been blanketing the state the last few years.”

Ms Omar, was born in Somalia before arriving in the US, told MSNBC last week that "Every time the president has invoked my name, it has incited violence against me,"

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in