
Tech billionaire Elon Musk sicced his far-right followers on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) this week, over clearly edited video footage purporting to show her inciting immigration crimes.
Omar was not advising anything illegal — and wasn’t even at the event the video purported to show her at, reported The New Republic.
Musk, who has increasingly embraced the MAGA movement and white supremacists on his X platform, promoted far-right Malaysian activist Ian Miles Cheong’s “obviously edited video in which he claimed the progressive congresswoman was ‘conducting seminars for Somalians who are living illegally in the U.S. without documentation, providing guidance on how to evade deportation,'” reported Malcolm Ferguson.
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The video depicts “a random room full of unidentified people of seemingly East African descent,” noted the report, then cuts to Omar explaining that people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have a right not to answer questions — which is protected by the Fifth Amendment.
“She is breaking the law. Literally. Outright,” posted Musk, which prompted a swarm of his supporters issuing hatred against Omar.
But Omar, one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress and a frequent target of hate by Trump allies, promptly hit back.
“Hey Elon, every single person in this country deserves to know their rights. That’s legal. Maybe you should brush up on our laws given the fact you’re breaking them to steal American’s sensitive data,” Omar posted, referring to Musk’s controversial takeover of the Treasury Department’s system used to make a majority of the federal government’s payments.
She added, “PS. This video is manipulated, and I wasn’t even at the event shown.”