U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky said in an interview that he would contribute to buy a ticket for Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to visit her native Somalia.
Paul made the comments when asked by Breitbart News about racist tweets by President Donald Trump, saying Omar and three other Democratic congresswomen of color should “go back” to the “broken” countries they came from.
Three of the four were born in the U.S., while Omar is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Somalia.
Paul, a Republican from Bowling Green, said in the interview last week that he would help pay for Omar to visit Somalia.
“I think she could look and maybe learn a little bit about the disaster that is Somalia, that has no capitalism, has no God-given rights guaranteed in a constitution and has about seven different tribes that have been fighting each other for about the last 40 years and maybe after she’s visited Somalia for a while, she might come back and appreciate America more,” he said, adding that Omar has been ungrateful for the opportunities she has had in the U.S.
Omar’s office has not publicly responded to Paul’s remarks.
