Below is my column in Fox.com on the recent MS NOW interview with Rep. Ilhan Omar. The most impressive aspect of the segment with Chris Hayes was how he could conduct an extended interview without actually asking long-standing, unanswered questions. When it comes to the art of evasion, it was a masterpiece. In case you are curious, here are the questions not asked of Rep. Omar.
Here is the column:
“I am trying to figure out the way to do this.” Those words from MS NOW’s Chris Hayes say all you need to know (and likely all you will get) from his interview on Wednesday with Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. There is a litany of questions the liberal host never asked of Omar. Those questions have only increased over the years, leading to the current criminal investigation into immigration fraud. At points, Hayes sounded more like a supplicant than a journalist given his discomfort with asking pressing questions.
The interview had the journalistic nutritional content of a Slurpee that would give any liberal a sugar high and any non-liberal a stomachache.
Many of us have stressed that these allegations are unproven, and that little evidence has been confirmed to support the underlying criminal charges. However, I have also written that Omar has been remarkably unforthcoming in rebutting the allegations or providing her own exculpatory information. Instead, she has spent years denouncing the allegations as racist or Islamophobic without addressing the specific claims.
While the Biden administration began aspects of these investigations years ago, Omar again sat for another prolonged interview without being pressed (beyond cursory questions) about long-standing allegations.
Hayes exhaustively explored Omar’s feelings and reactions to the recent search while largely avoiding any detailed questions about the very allegations that a Washington, D.C., judge found sufficient to show probable cause of criminal conduct.
It may be useful to consider 10 questions not asked of Ilhan Omar. Asking these questions is not to assume that the underlying claims are true, but to establish the facts from Omar’s perspective.
Immigration fraud
It took 12 minutes for Hayes to mention immigration fraud, and he did so by asking her, “How seriously do you take it?” He then prefaced the fraud question with a laugh, saying, “I am trying to figure out the way to do this that doesn’t sound like I’m insane.”
Hayes then laughed further with Omar about questions of marriage fraud and said, “There are right-wing people who believe” these allegations, after Omar agreed that such questions are “insane.”Hayes made a series of statements about how “there is not even a kernel of truth” to these claims before inviting affirmations from Omar. He then made a general reference to “moving on to other allegations” without any details.
The questions not asked:
- It has been alleged that you are not using your birth name and the government is referring to you as “Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar.” What was your name at birth, and have you ever legally changed your name? Are you using a name that is different from your birth name on your birth certificate?
- You stated in the interview that the government did not remove DNA evidence. Various legal experts have said for years that such samples could put the allegation of marrying a relative to rest. Have you ever offered a DNA swab and, if not, why?
- Have you had any contact with your former husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, directly or indirectly, since becoming a member of Congress?
- Your father was reportedly a colonel in a brutal Somali regime. Is that true, and did your father fully report his Somali background when applying for citizenship? Also, have you ever confirmed the information your father submitted, and if not, why not?
- You stated that the issue in this case is whether you, as a 12-year-old child, were a mastermind of a fraud. However, that is not the allegation, correct? The allegation is that you obtained citizenship through your father’s naturalization after he represented that you were 17 years old and did not have to file for your own citizenship. Was that accurate, or were you, in fact, 18 years old at the time?
- Your staff reportedly tried to change your birthdate after your election to Congress on federal sites. Did you order this effort, or were you aware of it?
- Do you have conflicting documents showing that you were, in fact, 18 years old when you became a citizen?
- Reports indicate that this investigation changed after your sister sent you messages and that she is now cooperating with federal investigators. Are you aware of what those messages were, and what did she say in them?
Financial fraud
In the interview, when Hayes moved on to Omar’s previous financial disclosure that she and her husband were worth $30 million before dropping to a little over $100,000, he again failed to address allegations that the drop in income was due to fraud. Instead, he asked about her “lifestyle,” then moved on to ask what it is like to be one of the least wealthy members of Congress.
Questions not asked:
- There are reports that the decline in your income was due to a drop in the value of your husband’s winery because of fraudulent practices, including selling empty barrels to investors under the guise of “wine to be aged.” Was that the reason for the adjustment, and when were you first informed of these fraud allegations?
- Your sister Sahra Noor reportedly listed a Minnesota home address when creating her Grit Partners Consulting business, which received millions in government contracts. That same address was used as a residence by figures convicted in the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scheme. Were you or your sister involved in or aware of the fraudulent activities of Feeding Our Future? Have you ever intervened or taken any action in connection with your sister’s contracts or those of Feeding Our Future?
If Omar had answered them, any of these questions would have produced a scoop, but that was clearly not the purpose of this interview. Instead, Hayes spent more time asking Omar how she felt about former President Barack Obama defending her than asking about the specific fraud allegations she faces.
Never has so much been expressed with so little said.
Hayes culminated the interview by asking, “Do you ever just want to tap out?” and Omar congratulated him on reaching the “real question.”
Unfortunately, MS NOW tapped out of the interview long before that question was asked.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times best-selling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
Turley Writes:
It may be useful to consider 10 questions not asked of Ilhan Omar.
* * * * * * *
Readers of this blog might have at least 5 questions regarding Estovir, whose constant presence here, in the form of puppet commenters, begs for deep scrutiny.
1) Who is Estovir?
2) Where is Estovir?
3) What is Estovir’s relation to Turley?
4) Is Estovir paid to monitor this blog?
5) Does Estovir inflate the number of visits to this blog?
……………………………………
Each of these questions raises several more. Let’s break them down.
1) Who is Estovir?
Is Estovir a contractor of sorts, working in a professional capacity?
Or is Estovir a free-lance opportunist who fancies himself as a ‘shock jock’; putting on a puppet show each day to generate conservative talking points?
What ethnicity is Estovir?
One should note that Estovir originally claimed to be a Cuban American in South Florida employed as a hospital lab technician. Was there any truth to that? Is Estovir really ethnic Cuban? Or is Estovir really a White man who felt that a Cuban identity made him more ‘credible’ as a Trump supporter?
2) Where is Estovir?
Is Estovir really in South Florida as he originally claimed? Does Estovir reside in ‘any’ metro region? Or is Estovir really based in some little town far-removed from any metro region?
3) What is Estovir’s relation to Turley?
Has Estovir ever met Johnathan Turley (or Darren Smith)? Was Estovir referred to Turley by mutual aquintances? Was Estovir forced on Turley by Fox News? Was Estovir forced on Turley by some conservative proxy group? Did Turley ever consent to having Estovir here?
4) Is Estovir paid to monitor this blog?
Each morning, as soon as Turley posts his column, Estovir goes to work, generating comments under a parade of puppet names. Estovir is then a constant presence here until the early evening hours. Yet Estovir continues checking in until at least midnight Eastern Time. That’s a lot of hours!! Is Estovir working for free?? If not, then WHO is paying Estovir? And is Turley’s blog so important that a full-time monitor is needed? This last question is most intriguing of all.
5) Does Estovir inflate the number of visits to this blog?
If Estovir is here, on a constant basis, from early morning to early evening, 7 days per week, are his visits being counted as blog traffic?
Because that’s a significant amount of traffic when tallied on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. And if Turley has any relationship with Estovir, that raises serious ethical questions. For that reason Turley should acknowledge Estovir’s presence and start addressing these questions.
Ah! Now we understand, I suspected, why leftists are so misinformed,
Nearly 60% in US get their news from 4 biggest aggregators, just 2% of stories right-leaning: study
https://justthenews.com/government/congress/news-app-media-bias
All the more reason why NOT to use Apple News, Google News, Yahoo News and Microsoft’s MSN.
This is why the public is losing trust in MSM.
Yahoo News is often a good source for information when you want to provide someone a link to something not like justthenews.com.
MS-NOW works best for brain dead readers (aka Leftists)
You are right. Justthenews.com is almost always correct; Yahoo is not so much.
“Just the News” is MAGA–disregard.
“THE BRACERO PROGRAM DID NOT COVER MINING”
The Salud Carbajal Immigration Discrepancy
The specific transition regarding Congressman Salud Carbajal’s father represents the core of a localized investigative controversy. Rep. Carbajal has stated that his family legally immigrated from Mexico to a small copper mining town in Arizona around 1970 (when he was 5 years old) under the auspices of the Bracero Program. The Bracero Program officially ended in December 1964—six years before the family’s reported 1970 arrival, and a month after Carbajal was born. Official biographies note his father worked in an underground copper mine in Arizona before moving to California to do farmwork. THE BRACERO PROGRAM DID NOT COVER MINING. An industrial worker would have required a separate H-2 employer petition or a lawful permanent residency (Green Card) application. In 2019, Carbajal shared a childhood photo on social media, identifying it as the picture from his 1970 Green Card. Local reporting by the Santa Barbara Current pointed out that the ink stamp on the photo translates to the “Department of Police” from Mexico, rather than a U.S. INS entry or permanent residency stamp.
Because individual immigration files (known as “A-Files”) are protected under strict federal privacy laws, the exact applications, visas, or adjustment forms filed by Carbajal’s father to move between the Arizona mines and California fields remain unreleased to the public.
Johnathan’s point about Slurpy runs to something about us. We prefer media that reflects our conservative or liberal idea base. At least since the time Roger Ailles conceived Fox reporting, Adam Smith’s hand has made big business models that cater to the two preferences. In between we have word that journalism education has distaste for “both sidesism”, preferring advocacy journalism. Good question whether one is a fractal of the other. We are seeing corporate mergers that involve the fate of liberal outlets like CNN and MSNOW. NPR has been cut loose from public funding. What is clear is that if we value balance- Paul Harvey’s “The Rest of the Story”- to be found on on a single “news” channel-or many, we have to be prepared to accept some “news” beyond our preference. Ultimately, balance in news is a fractal of what we do. We might start by taking notice of the diversity of preferences spoken right here on Res Ipsa Loquitur.
Adam Smith offers putting sawdust into bread as a filler to make the bread cheaper to make. Adam Smith suggests putting fentanyl into heroin as a cheap way to tweak the hit among addicts, even if it kills some of them. Adam Smith teaches that telling people lies they want to hear can sell pillows, supplies to cope with the coming fall of civilization, and cell phones with a “T” on it to suckers for Trump.
Sure the bread isn’t all sawdust, the heroin not all fentanyl, and the programs have some truth mixed in to disguise that they are selling poison.
The evidence is this – if the advertisers are selling on the concept that their product is to save the buyer from the collapse of a lawful nation then you are looking at programming targeting unstable and profoundly terrified people, people who are ready to believe conspiracy theories and other lies.
If the advertisers are selling on the concept that individuals’ lives could be better, they are being as truthful as advertisers can get and the programming will reflect that as a draw to the advertising.
Riots in France, Italy, Belgium, Albania now [ Saturday] and our useless media is giving it little coverage.
Young,
Of course they will not cover it. It does not fit the leftist narrative. CBS called it “Scuffles.” BBC tried the “fiery but mostly peaceful” spin. Did MSM cover “Police Prefect Patrice Faure urged shop owners near the protest routes to hire private security agents, “possibly with dog-handler teams,” lower their shutters, and consider not opening on Saturday.”
https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/paris-police-chief-sparks-outcry-by-advising-shopkeepers-to-hire-private-security-ahead-of-saturdays-far-left-protests-6107794?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge
Upstate,
True. But for the internet we would know very little about the decay of Europe and Western Civilization.
Besides the riots have already given a boost to Le pen and the media doesn’t want them to help Rs in the midterms.
Our corporate media would prefer to make the pathological, corrosive goals of the Left pass as normal until it is too late.
Let us know when they start rioting in Seattle, Portland, or Baltimore.
Subscribe to Justthenews.com and truthful news will magically appear in your email box, at no charge.
Another is tousi.tv on YouTube. Generally interesting.
Young, I watched Tousi when we were bombing Iran, but found it time-consuming. Right now might be a good time to review what he has. Thanks, I just wish there was a less time-consuming way.
I should have added that I like JTN because I can see the broad picture and focus on the parts I am interested in there and elsewhere. Tousi doesn’t do that, does he?
I seem to recall 100+ days of rioting in Portland against ICE and federal facilities.
Then there was the 2020 Summer of Love, with riots, arson, murder, assault.
There was that CHAZ/CHOP zone . . . what was it? Two or three killed?
“I am Trying to Figure Out the Way to Do This”
– Ihan Omar
_______________
You buy a plane ticket then you “GET UP ON OLDE PAINT AND GET THE —- WHERE YOU AIN’T!”
Isn’t there a self-deportation bonus right now?
Why is Omar getting singled out when there are other people who have been accused of similar things? Why not focus on them? What is the motivation?
Anonymous, there are lots of people who commit crimes so why point out that Omar is committing crimes? Omar holds one of the highest offices in the nation which is a position of trust. Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time especially if you’re a high ranking politician. I guess we should just let her off because others have committed the same crime. Stinkin thinkin.
Might it be that Omar and her team saw the interview as a strategic communications opportunity? One with a sympathetic interviewer to downplay the allegations and allow Omar to present her message with a smiling face?
Her lawyerly “not to my knowledge” qualification in response to an almost comically mangled question is especially interesting. It seemed out of character with the rest of the interview. Even more than an unqualified denial, it gives her room to maneuver as damaging information comes to light.
Perhaps the interview was less about answering questions than getting ahead of them.
Imagine George Washington talking about what a nice ass Thomas Jefferson had.
BAN FOR LIFE!
“The interview had the journalistic nutritional content of a Slurpee that would give any liberal a sugar high and any non-liberal a stomachache.”
This analysis was clear and insightful. I do have question, however, that is partly, but not wholly, facetious. Prof. Turley has gone on record frequently in his past columns as being a liberal. To the best of my knowledge, he has never repudiated that label, although his writing shows apparent evidence of his politics moving to the right. So, what I would like to know is whether watching the interview gave the good Professor more of a buzz or an ache 🙂
Prof. Turley may or not be moving to the right; there’s little evidence of his innermost thoughts.
That aside, Prof. Turley’s bank account is shifting to the right as to appear infrared on the political spectrum and dragging his writing with it.
What’s amusing about Ilhan Omar’s career is that (1) prior to getting into politics she had a perfectly ordinary job and one without strong operational measures of competence, (2) she represents a white majority district, and (3) one of her primary opponents over the years was a black lawyer with a conventional outlook and conventional family life (he lost 3:2). The Somali population in her district is small. Her whole career is a function of white bourgeois flipping the bird at their neighbors and their ancestors.
X, you forgot to mention that those white people flipping the bird have voted for Democrats in perpetuity. In her district they would vote for someone even if they knew that their choice received money from China under the table. They’d even vote for a candidate who received millions provided by the people who ripped off public money from food providers that was meant to feed poor children. The bird flippers really don’t give a damn about the poor. News flash for you X. Those billionaires you hate are now providing billions for research that will cure Melanoma, Cancer, Diabetes and aging. Your being very cute has little to do with being informed.
Let’s remember that the leftwing Fascists tried to bankrupt the entire Trump organization over supposedly misvaluing a property, allowed by a corrupt Manhattan judge. Let’s also remember that the Fascists tried to imprison Trump for the rest of his life over expired misdemeanors that were bookkeeping errors at worst, transformed into felonies, allowed by another corrupt Manhattan judge. No one is above the law. And Chris Hayes is a urinalist.
The suit wasn’t due to the property being mis-valued – Trump kept two sets of books with different values in each for the same properties.
Watching MS is like watching a sitcom about a whore house. Hayes makes a lot more money than your average whore but he is a whore nonetheless. Stay tuned for the dance of the vales performed by Rachel Maddow at the eight o’clock hour. Public nudity is less disgusting even when they parade their naked children who have been anatomically altered.
Both true and thanks, since I had mentioned neither (although I did earlier post something reappearing last week (https://truthpress.com/news/resurfaced-records-reveal-ilhan-omars-ex-husband-pulled-green-card-bid-when-asked-to-prove-marriage-was-real/
and this
https://truthpress.com/news/newly-uncovered-record-reveals-ilhan-omars-ex-husband-shares-surname-with-her-sisters-father/
(response to Sam below)
Can’t help but wonder, if kiddo #3 belongs to her and her brother.
Not sure if that info will ever become public, but this crazy rabbithole seems to go really deep.
No, the “marriage” to her brother was always a sham. She never left her real husband, the father of all her children. Throughout the “marriage” to her brother she was living with her real husband, filing joint tax returns with him, and known in the community as his wife. No one knew about this so-called husband, whose marriage to her existed only on paper.
The first and most glaring fact to confront is that Chris Hayes is not a journalist. He’s a carefully groomed and hardened propagandist who was first among his graduating class at the Joseph Goebbels Disinformation Institute. Understanding that, one can appreciate how he came to be such a prized puppet at MS NOW.
Hmmm!!!
There are only two possibilities here.
Firstly, Turley watches MS NOW on a regular basis.
Either that, or his MAGA overlords at Fox ordered him to write this piece of garbage.
Anonymous! That fits!
I’m not surprised that you wrote that comment as “Anonymous”. It was dumb.
Wonder no more why MS NOW has such low viewership ratings.
Trump has very low ratings, too. Maybe he should stop being president.
the sewer ratings commenters have given you have not stopped you from showing your aged fat white ass, yet here you are
Trump has done more bad things than Omar ever has, but Turley’s eyes evade having to look at these things.
Omar is under zero obligation and quite right to ignore the fake allegations. She was already investigated years ago about these.
Partially true, but why did Chris Hayes interview her then? There certainly are plenty of political figures out there looking for media exposure –days before the midterms. The nature and scope of the questions would almost certainly have been addressed prior to her assent. So what was the purpose of the interview then, –if meaningful questions were to be circumvented? Would you therefore agree that there was mutuality between Hayes and Omar as to a shared objective of enhancing a favorable perception of her in a critical state election?
l,
Also notice the two relevant facts omitted by the commenter: That was a Biden administration “investigation.” And that there is such a thing as new evidence.
Both true and thanks, since I had mentioned neither (although I did earlier post something reappearing last week (https://truthpress.com/news/resurfaced-records-reveal-ilhan-omars-ex-husband-pulled-green-card-bid-when-asked-to-prove-marriage-was-real/
and this
https://truthpress.com/news/newly-uncovered-record-reveals-ilhan-omars-ex-husband-shares-surname-with-her-sisters-father/
Presumably the purpose of the Hayes interview was to tell the mob what to say and think. “It’s insane”.