Minnesota representative on potential COVID fraud scheme, President Trump’s comments and more

WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA) - Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about a potential COVID fraud scheme.

During her previous interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Brennan said the secretary is alleging that people tied to her or her campaign were involved a "broad, brazen scheme to rip off the Minnesota state welfare system."

This prompted Brennan to ask Rep. Omar if she wanted to responded to that, as well ask if she knowns what Secretary Bessent was referring to, to which the congresswoman said:

"I really don't, and I don't think the Secretary himself understands what he's referring to. We obviously had people who were able to donate to our campaign that were involved. We sent that money back a couple years ago. And actually, I was one of the first members of Congress to send a letter to the Secretary of Ag asking them to look into what I thought was a reprehensible fraud that was occurring within the program."

Brennan followed up by asking why Omar thinks the fraud was allowed to get widespread, and the congresswoman said:

"I want to say, you know, this also has an impact on Somalis, because we are also taxpayers in Minnesota. We also could have benefited from the program and the money that was stolen. And so it's been really frustrating for people to not acknowledge the fact that we're, you know, we're also as Minnesotans as taxpayers, really upset and angry about the fraud that has occurred."

During the interview, Brennan and Omar talked about President Donald Trump's comments regarding Somali immigrants.

At a Cabinet meeting, President Trump said, "These are people that do nothing but complain. They complain, and from where they came from, they've got nothing...We don't want them in our country. Let them go back to where they came from and fix it."

When asked what her reaction is to Trump's comments, Omar said:

"It's disgusting. It's completely disgusting. These are Americans that he is calling garbage. And we feel like there is an unhealthy obsession that he has on the Somali community, and an unhealthy and creepy obsession that he has with me. I think it is also really important for us to remember that this kind of hateful rhetoric and this level of dehumanizing can lead to dangerous actions by people who listen to the president."

Later in the interview, Brennan and Omar talked about Stephen Miller's post to social media on Thanksgiving.

According to the post, Miller, who according to Brennan is the architect for the president's immigration policy, said in part, "No magic transformation occurs when failed states cross borders. At scale, migrants and their descendants recreate the conditions, and terrors, of their broken homelands."

This led Brennan to ask the congresswoman what she thinks of his post, as well as ask how she understands it, and Omar said:

"I mean, when I think about Stephen Miller and his white supremacist rhetoric, it reminds me of the way the Nazis described Jewish people in Germany. And you know, as we know, there have been many immigrants who have tried to come to the United States who have turned back, you know, one of them being Jewish immigrants. We know the way that people were described who were coming from Ireland, Irish immigrants. We know the way in which people were described back then, when there were Italian immigrants. And to me, you know, we're, we're, yes, of course, ethnically Somali, we are in this country as Americans, we are citizens, we are a productive part of this nation, and we will continue to be."

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