Overview

• Rep. Ilhan Omar told Democracy Now! that sending the National Guard to Los Angeles and staging a 250th anniversary military parade have turned America into “one of the worst countries.”
• She compared the presence of armed, unmarked forces on city streets to a police state and labeled the parade a failed dictator’s vanity project.
• Conservative media outlets and Republican lawmakers accused Omar of hyperbole and ingratitude given her family’s refugee background.
• California and Gov. Gavin Newsom have sued the administration, arguing the president lacks constitutional authority to deploy troops without state consent.
• Omar evoked her childhood fleeing Somalia’s civil war to underscore her view that U.S. democratic ideals are under threat.