Radical Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) lost her prominence in the Biden years as they downplayed the fringe a bit. But now that "Islamophobia" is back as President Trump called Omar and her friends "garbage," the networks ran to pamper her again.
One reason Trump might have been called Rep. Ilhan Omar “garbage” is her connections to the fraudsters in the Somali community that stole more than $1 billion in government money that was supposed to feed children.
On his CNN program The Lead on Wednesday, host Jake Tapper began by setting the stage about the fraud -- before nudging Omar's expected barrage of Trump attacks. He noted the New York Times found some Somalis were "making small fortunes by defrauding government programs of more than $1 billion of taxpayer money during the pandemic. We're talking about dozens of people in a community of thousands, of course."
He began by gently asking Omar "What are you hearing from investigators right now?" He followed up with "Can you shed any light on why the fraud got so out of control in Minnesota?" Omar babbled in generalities like Kamala Harris.
Tapper didn't make any attempt to question Omar on her connections to this massive fraud, or how Democrats pandered to their Somali voters by letting all this happen. The New York Post reported on Thursday that Omar and her staffers defended the fraudulent charity called “Feeding Our Future.” Guhaad Hashi Said, who worked on Omar’s 2018 and 2020 campaign as an “enforcer” who oversaw Somali voter mobilization, pleaded guilty in August to running a fake food site called Advance Youth Athletic Development, where he falsely claimed to serve 5,000 meals a day and pocketed $3.2 million out of the food program.
Instead, Tapper painted her as a victim lectured about smearing Muslim migrants:
TAPPER: Now, obviously, whatever the ethnic group, the actions of a few dozen should not impugn an entire community of thousands of people. Okay, I want to make that very clear. President Trump has used this fraud to make rather shock -- to me, shockingly bigoted comments about Somalis in general, including you, but the entire Somali community in Minnesota….I don't know how shocked you are at this at this point anymore, but Somali immigrants in general, you in particular have been the target of his attacks for a long time. What's your response?
OMAR: Yeah. I mean, I'm not shocked because we know that the president oftentimes resorts to very bigoted, xenophobic, Islamophobic, racist rhetoric when he is trying to scapegoat and deflect from the actual failures that he has himself.
The worst broadcast interview with Omar this week happened on NPR’s Morning Edition. Co-host Michel Martin did the spoon-feeding of Omar: “You've been a favorite target of President Trump since you were elected, but it cannot have been easy to hear him make these comments about the entire Somali community. I just wondered what went through your mind when he said things like they contribute nothing and should go back to where they came from and so on.” Omar replied: “His vile rant really wasn't a surprise to me. He has trafficked in racism, in xenophobia, in bigotry and Islamophobia for as long as he has held office.”
Morning Edition anchor Steve Inskeep underlined NPR is Omar PR with this X post on more of her answer:
On NPR, Rep. Ilhan Omar responds to Trump’s two-day ramble about Somalis, including US citizens who employ him:
— Steve Inskeep (@NPRinskeep) December 4, 2025
Says she feels “shame” that “we elected just a really crazy, deranged old man who does not have the ability to control himself.”
This is NPR, which claims it's an oasis of civil discourse. It's not. It's viciously anti-Trump all the time.
On the fourth question, Martin finally laid out that fraud occurred, and then just asked “do you have any reaction to that information?” Omar said she was happy there was accountability for the taxpayers. Martin followed up with another puffball: “Are you concerned that an entire community is being scapegoated because of the actions of this group of people?”
Radical Muslims get softballs. Conservatives get trashed. But they call it "public" radio.
