Minnesota representative on U.S. foreign aid and Trump’s comments regarding Gaza

WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about USAID and the impact it's closure could have on the world.

When asked if the courts are the main line of defense regarding USAID's future status, Omar said:

"Yeah. I mean, what we are witnessing is a constitutional crisis. We are seeing an executive branch that has decided that they are no longer going to abide by the Constitution in honoring Congress' role in the creation of the agencies in their role in deciding where money is allocated, and so the only recourse we have since our congressional leadership, the speaker will not stop the executive is through the judiciary. And this is you know, when you think about the checks and balances that we have, the courts are the only recourse we have at the moment, and we have seen and when we talk about the illegality of what the executive is doing, we have seen every single executive order that has been challenged in the courts was found to be illegal. And that, I think, should give faith to the American people, that our courts are working as they should. The checks and balances are working. What is not working is the way that the executive is behaving and the congressional leadership that is failing the American people."

During her interview with Omar, Brennan brought up her earlier interview with Congressman Mike McCaul (R-TX), where he indicated "that when it came to breaking up an agency that was enshrined in law, that maybe there is some resistance there," but Brennan also brought up Senator Bill Hagerty's (R-TN) comments during her interview with him saying "Congress would be supportive of dismantling USAID."

This prompted Brennan to ask Omar if she thinks she has leverage to put that "argument forward in Congress," to which Omar responded saying:

"They don't have the numbers in order to dismantle through Congress. That's why they are going through this illegal route. We know that USAID has support, not just with Democrats, but with Republicans. I can't see McCaul taking a vote to dismantle USAID, you know so we know that the votes are not there to dismantle the Department of Education. We know that the votes are not there to grant security clearances for them accessing treasury and so every single process that they are going through in implementing Trump's agenda is, at the moment, illegal, and they know they don't have the support for it in Congress. That's why they're not bringing it through Congress."

Brennan also brought up a survey from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, where "they found a growing number want to reduce economic and military aid to other countries," prompting Brennan to ask Omar how will she "convince the public that your point of view is the right one," and Omar said:

"Foreign aid, I think, throughout the history of our country, has not been popular with the American people because we don't have that many conversations about what it does, how much of it, it accounts for in our budget. A lot of people hear the millions, billions, and they don't fully have a concept of what that actually means, the lives it touches, and how important it is, both the soft power that we have as a country, how it keeps us competitive around the world, how it buys us goodwill. We can have the conversation, but when you just say foreign aid to a lot of people, they're thinking that we're sending bombs to other countries, which people like me and others oppose."

Later in the interview, Brennan and Omar talked about President Trump's claims that the U.S. will "take over" Gaza, with Brennan asking how Omar thinks "this is heard and understood around the world," and Omar said in part:

"That's just plain out ethnic cleansing and genocide. That's what he's talking about. The Palestinian people will remain in Gaza, and there is no support around the world for the ludicrous suggestion that he is making...I'm pretty sure most of the people in Gaza would love to remain in their homeland and be where they were born"

To watch more of Brennan's interview with Omar, click here.