This week, CBS News went down to the southern border and they were shocked to find that there are not thousands of people trying to cross the border illegally anymore.
As Trump said at his first State of the Union address, all we really needed was a new president. Isn’t it amazing what can be accomplished when our government enforces existing immigration law?
Only liberals in media would be surprised by this.
Would You Look at That: CBS Visits Southern Border, Discovers It to Be a Ghost Town
Following a series of social media posts in the days prior, CBS immigration reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez’s trip to the U.S.-Mexico border finally yielded a formal news segment as, during Thursday’s CBS Mornings, he relayed that “it was extremely quiet” and he has “not see[n] a single migrant” while traversing it by land or water (the Rio Grande) after having seen in the past “hundreds of people” at a time.
Of course, this was all due to the change in posture and surge in resources by the Trump administration. Montoya-Galvez eventually admitted this was because the President made the decision “to effectively close down the American asylum system” and thus discouraged crossers.
Fill-in co-host Matt Gutman tossed to Montoya-Galvez in the second half-hour and minutes after the latter first filed a report fretting about the case of a U.S. Army soldier’s wife being arrested by Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) on April 14.
“[W]e all know that immigration is a hot button issue in America. More recently, it’s been in the spotlight due to the crackdown by masked ICE agents in unmarked cars in cities across the country. But in previous years, the focus on immigration was at the U.S.-Mexico border, where illegal crossings skyrocketed during the Biden administration. Now they have fallen to a 55-year low,” Gutman said.
Watch the video below:
I still can’t get over this story on Thursday’s ‘CBS Mornings’ with the stunning visuals showing the U.S. southern border is an absolute ghost town. No illegal immigrants running past rows of bushes or wading through the Rio Grande.
The hits just keep coming for disgraced former Congressman Eric Swalwell.
In addition to facing multiple accusations of sexual misconduct and even rape, he is now facing allegations that he used campaign cash to pay a lawyer representing him in these matters. He also reportedly used campaign cash to pay babysitters.
And we’re not talking about small amounts here. We’re talking about tens of thousands of dollars.
Eric Swalwell Campaign Paid $40K to Lawyer Representing Him Against Sexual Misconduct Allegations, $22K for Babysitters
Disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell (D., Calif.) dipped into his gubernatorial campaign’s war chest to pay an attorney representing him against sexual assault charges and for babysitters for his three children, records show.
According to campaign filings released Thursday, Swalwell’s campaign paid $40,000 to Sara Azari, a veteran criminal defense attorney who specializes in “cases where liberty, livelihood, and reputation are at stake.” It is Swalwell’s first payment to Azari; he has typically relied on other lawyers. Azari is representing the former congressman against allegations that he sexually assaulted a former congressional aide and harassed staffers.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office opened an investigation on April 11 after a former aide alleged that Swalwell sexually assaulted her while she was inebriated after a political event in 2024. The same woman accused Swalwell of raping her while she was drunk in 2019. Swalwell suspended his gubernatorial campaign the same day and resigned from Congress on April 14.
In a statement before the ex-congressman’s resignation, Azari said Swalwell “categorically” denied the assault and harassment allegations, calling them a “calculated and transparent political hit job.” Azari said Swalwell would “pursue every available legal remedy” against his accusers.
Swalwell, who was the frontrunner in the governor’s race before the scandal, also relied heavily on campaign funds to take care of his three children. According to campaign disclosures, Team Swalwell paid around $22,549 in 12 transactions to Swalwell’s longtime nanny, Amanda Barbosa, between January 1 and April 18.
At this point, he will be lucky to stay out of prison.
By the way, have you noticed that the liberal media is no longer interested in talking about Swalwell anymore?
Can I read about this in the Washington Post? Kind of weird how a good majority of mainstream reporting just stopped now that he’s out of the California Governor’s race. https://t.co/m1WYlUOYi5
Mississippi’s Republican Governor Tate Reeves on Friday evening announced he is calling a special legislative session for redistricting once the US Supreme Court rules on voting rights (Louisiana v. Callais).
Governor Reeves said the legislature will convene 21 days after the Supreme Court issues a ruling.
President Trump’s Department of Justice, through Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon and Solicitor General John Sauer, told the US Supreme Court that race-based congressional districts must end once and for all.
The case, State of Louisiana v. Phillip Callais (and the related Press Robinson v. Phillip Callais), stems from Louisiana’s woke lawmakers caving to left-wing judges and creating a second “majority-minority” congressional district.
Here are the key takedowns:
No More Race-First Districts Without Proof: Plaintiffs must prove their proposed majority-minority district is “superior” to the state’s map under race-neutral rules, including political goals. Otherwise, it’s just assuming racism where none exists.
Decouple Race from Party: The brief slams how courts let Democrats hide behind “polarized voting” that’s really just partisan divides. “Plaintiffs must decouple party from race when determining whether majority and minority voters vote differently,” it states. No more using black voters’ loyalty to Democrats as an excuse for gerrymandering.
Real Evidence of Discrimination Required: Echoing Shelby County v. Holder (which gutted outdated VRA provisions in 2013), the DOJ says current conditions don’t justify this nonsense. Voter turnout is sky-high, minorities are winning elections everywhere – including in Congress, where black representation is at record levels.
Full statement from Tate Reeves:
I don’t typically make news on a Friday afternoon, but today I am going to make an exception:
I’m calling a special session.
During the recently completed regular session, the Legislature discussed drawing new maps to comply with a decision from a federal judge from the Northern District of Mississippi – a decision that has been appealed to the 5th Circuit and the appeal has been heretofore stayed pending future U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
The entire world knows the Callais decision has not yet been handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court. It is a decision that could (and in my view should) forever change the way we draw electoral maps.
It is my belief and federal law requires that the Mississippi Legislature be given the first opportunity to draw these maps. And the fact is, they haven’t had a fair opportunity to do that because of the pending Callais decision.
For those reasons, I am using my constitutional authority to allow the Mississippi Legislature to use their constitutionally recognized right to draw these maps once the new rules of the game are known following Callais.
It is my sincere hope that, in deciding Callais, the U.S. Supreme Court will reaffirm the animating principle that all Americans are created equal and that when the government classifies its citizens on the basis of race, even as a perceived remedy to right a wrong, it engages in the offensive and demeaning assumption that Americans of a particular race, because of their race, think alike and share the same interests and preferences – a concept that is odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality.
The special session will take place on the calendar day that falls 21 days after the U.S. Supreme Court issues the Callais decision.
I don’t typically make news on a Friday afternoon, but today I am going to make an exception:
I’m calling a special session.
During the recently completed regular session, the Legislature discussed drawing new maps to comply with a decision from a federal judge from the… pic.twitter.com/wEnFw5xkHk
A new survey showed that President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration is sending a message.
A survey from Gallup indicated that as Trump pushes to deport illegal immigrants and ban potential terrorists, the number of people who want to come here has declined.
Gallup’s 2025 migration survey shows that 15 percent of respondents around the world who want to leave their country picked the U.S. as their destination of choice, which put the U.S. first among potential destinations.
For context, the figure was at 24 percent in 2009 during the Obama administration, and dipped to around 18 percent during Trump’s first term.
The 2025 results are from 144,000 people in 140 countries and include 2023 results from China, the last year the question was asked there.
Gallup asked respondents, “Ideally, if you had the opportunity, would you like to move permanently to another country, or would you prefer to continue living in this country?” Anyone who wanted to leave was then asked where they would ideally live.
The survey found that as Trump has slammed the door on illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America, migrating to America has lost some of its luster in those regions.
In 2024, 33 percent of those surveyed from Latin America said they wanted to come to America. That fell to 28 percent in 2025.
In Mexico, 21 percent of those surveyed said they wanted to move to the U.S., dropping from Biden-era highs back to the level of the first Trump administration.
In Honduras, the will to migrate to the U.S. fell from 71 percent to 36 percent.
Trump is doing what Americans want and it should alway be American First. Not illegal immigrants. pic.twitter.com/P921q95CDF
“It is the policy of the United States to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security and public safety, incite hate crimes, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes,” he wrote in a December proclamation to limit the entry of potential terrorists to the U.S.
“The United States must exercise extreme vigilance during the visa-issuance and immigration processes to identify, prior to their admission or entry into the United States, foreign nationals who intend to harm Americans or our national interests. The United States Government must ensure that admitted aliens do not intend to threaten its citizens; undermine or destabilize its culture, government, institutions, or founding principles; or advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists or other threats to our national security,” he wrote.
The State Department also warned potential illegal immigrants not to make the journey into the country.
“Those who try to abuse the visa system to reach the United States illegally will face consequences. Individuals who are found to have intentionally provided inaccurate information on visa applications or during interviews will jeopardize their ability to travel to the United States and may be permanently ineligible to enter the United States,” it warned.
“They may also face criminal prosecution under local and federal U.S. law. Those who commit fraud and abuse our visa process will be caught. Those who are issued a visa and use it improperly, including by overstaying or otherwise breaking U.S. laws, risk consequences ranging from deportation to a lifetime ban on entry,” it added.
House Speaker Johnson on Friday provided an update to a GOP lawmaker who hasn’t voted in more than a month.
Rep. Thomas Kean (R-NJ) has missed more than 50 roll call votes.
Speaker Johnson told ABC News that Rep. Kean is dealing with personal health matters.
“I was happy to speak to Tom Kean, Jr. this afternoon by phone. He is attending to a personal health matter and expects to be back to 100% very soon,” Johnson told ABC News.
“Tom is one of the most dedicated and hardest-working Members of Congress, and I am grateful for all he does and will continue to do to serve New Jerseyans and our country,” Johnson said.
Republican Rep. Thomas Kean Jr. of New Jersey has missed votes in the House for more than a month without personally providing his constituents with an explanation.
Kean, 57, cast his last vote on March 5. Since then, he’s missed 50 roll call votes.
As House Speaker Mike Johnson navigates a narrow majority, a Republican member’s prolonged absence could impact the ability to move must-pass legislation and President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Johnson is currently trying to pass Department of Homeland Security funding, a long-term extension of FISA and the farm bill — all relying on Republican votes. Johnson can only afford to lose two votes on any party-line bill, and that’s if all members are present and voting.
Speaker Johnson said in a statement provided to ABC News that he spoke to Kean by phone on Thursday, and that he is dealing with an unspecified “personal health matter.”
In 2024, a Republican Congresswoman who had been “missing” for six months was finally found in a dementia care home.
Rep. Kay Granger, 81, had served as the representative for Texas’s 12th Congressional District since 1997.
However, she suddenly disappeared from the public eye in July 2024, when she cast her final vote against an amendment to reduce the salary of Deputy Assistant Administrator for Pesticide Programs to $1.
A curious reporter at the local Dallas Express newspaper did some digging on Granger’s whereabouts and has finally been able to give her constituents some answers.
The reporter learned that Granger was residing at an assisted living facility specializing in memory care.
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota brushed aside a journalist who asked her to explain how Omar’s net worth on reporting forms could shrink.
Last week, Congressional disclosures reviewed by the Wall Street Journal put Omar’s wealth at somewhere between $18,000 and $95,000. Previous filings put her wealth between $6 million and $30 million, Fox News reported.
Omar’s office has said accounting errors were responsible for the initial estimates, but has never explained them in detail.
A Lindell TV reporter tried to break through the stone wall of vague deflections, but was turned aside. The conversation began with Omar insisting she stood by a past denigration of the reporter, according to a video posted to X.
WARNING: The following social media post contains vulgar language that some may find offensive.
“STUPID” & “JACK SH*T” – ILHAN OMAR’S RESPONSE WHEN ASKED ABOUT HER $30M NET WORTH “CORRECTION”
We went back to @Ilhan Omar to ask about her $30M → $95K net worth “correction.”
Her response to our reporter:
“I still think you’re STUPID for asking me anything.”
“I said I absolutely think you’re stupid for asking me anything,” Omar said.
When offered a chance to explain how her wealth could shrink once it became a lightning rod for criticism, she refused.
“I have explained to the American people,” she said, adding, “I have given them the explanation.”
The reporter tried again to get a response. She did.
“I don’t want to tell you jack s***,” Omar said in closing.
“How about that?” Omar said, ending the conversation by telling the journalist, “Have a good day.”
Certified Public Accountant Dan Geltrude, who founded Geltrude & Company in 1995, said Omar cannot shift blame onto others, according to Alpha News.
“Let’s call this for what it is: When a congressperson has to file these financial disclosure forms, they are signing them and by signing them, what are they saying? They are true, complete, and accurate to the best of their knowledge,” Geltrude said.
“So are you telling me that she didn’t notice that her net worth went from 100,000 to 30 million? Don’t blame the accountant. You can’t say you don’t know. Your signature on that form holds you legally accountable,” he said.
“The accountant did not make these numbers up. These numbers were provided in some form for the accountant to prepare the forms,” Geltrude said.
“But again, I go back to she is responsible. So what it tells me is either she misled in some way, or she simply didn’t review the forms. Either way, there is no excuse here … None.”
How the change came about could still be revealed as House Republicans investigate, Fox News wrote.
“Ilhan Omar is even more clueless than I thought if she thinks this financial disclosure revision clears her of suspicion,” Republican Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota said.
“She can backtrack, obfuscate, and distract all she wants but she’s made clear who she is: A fraud-enabling, racist antisemite who espouses anti-American rhetoric every chance she gets,” he said.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which built a multimillion-dollar empire by labeling Christian organizations as hate groups, now stands federally indicted for secretly funding the leaders of actual hate groups, including Klansmen and neo-Nazis.
A federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama, indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center on 11 counts of wire fraud, false statements to a federally insured bank, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. The DOJ alleges that between 2014 and 2023, the SPLC paid at least $3 million to individuals affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, United Klans of America, Unite the Right, the National Alliance, the National Socialist Movement, the National Socialist Party of America, the Aryan Nations-affiliated Sadistic Souls Motorcycle Club, and the American Front.
The payments were made through fictitious entities, including “Fox Photography” and “Rare Books Warehouse,” and the SPLC never disclosed this informant program to donors. One informant received more than $1 million while affiliated with the neo-Nazi National Alliance; another was the Imperial Wizard of the United Klans of America.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the charges alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, who had previously severed the bureau’s relationship with the SPLC, calling it a “partisan smear machine.” The SPLC reported over $800 million in assets as of 2024. Interim CEO Bryan Fair called the allegations false, saying the SPLC’s sources had “risked their lives” and provided information to the FBI that “saved lives.” The indictment does not allege that funds went directly to the hate groups themselves, only to affiliated individuals.
The indictment is the latest development in a long record of the SPLC using its “hate group” designation against Christian organizations, a pattern that produced real-world violence, a nationwide Catholic surveillance program, and the systematic exclusion of Christian ministries from donor platforms. The irony is that the vast majority of African Americans the SPLC purports to defend are themselves Christians, particularly in the South.
The SPLC designated the Family Research Council (FRC) as a hate group in 2010. In August 2012, Floyd Lee Corkins II entered FRC’s Washington headquarters armed with a 9mm pistol and multiple magazines. He told the FBI, “Southern Poverty Law lists anti-gay groups. I found them online, did a little research, went to the website, stuff like that.”
Prosecutors said his mission was to kill as many people as possible; a security guard was shot but stopped the attack. Corkins pleaded guilty to committing an act of terrorism while armed and was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2013. FRC President Tony Perkins stated that Corkins “was given a license by a group such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, who labeled us a hate group because we defend the family and we stand for traditional, orthodox Christianity.” A decade after the attack, FRC remained on the SPLC hate map.
The SPLC also designated the Alliance Defending Freedom as a hate group, an organization founded in 1994 by Christian leaders, including James Dobson, Bill Bright, and D. James Kennedy, which has since secured 64 victories before the United States Supreme Court. Former Attorney General Edwin Meese III wrote in the Wall Street Journal that placing ADF alongside KKK chapters was “not only wrong, it’s malicious.”
In 2015, the SPLC listed Dr. Ben Carson, an African American neurosurgeon, as an extremist for opposing same-sex marriage, placing him alongside KKK and neo-Nazi groups. The SPLC was forced to apologize and remove him from the list after public backlash.
In January 2023, the FBI’s Richmond Field Office produced an internal memo identifying “radical traditionalist Catholics” as potential domestic violent extremists, drawing on SPLC designations as a primary source.
The memo listed specific groups, including Catholic Apologetics International and the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It treated adherence to the Latin Mass and opposition to abortion as indicators of potential radicalization.
Newly released documents confirmed the memo was circulated among multiple FBI divisions, viewed by over 1,000 employees, and endorsed by field offices in Buffalo, Milwaukee, Louisville, Los Angeles, and Portland. Internal emails show that then-Deputy Director Paul Abbate ordered the memo deleted from FBI systems, and that another official deleted access logs identifying who had viewed it.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said he found at least 13 FBI documents produced between 2009 and 2023 that used what he called “anti-Catholic terminology” and relied on SPLC information. Twenty state attorneys general criticized the FBI for citing the SPLC, apparently without independent vetting.
The 2024 hate map listed 96 organizations in the “anti-LGBTQ” category, applied to groups that promote parental rights, religious liberty, and opposition to gender ideology. The SPLC also designated the American College of Pediatricians as a hate group.
Former SPLC Intelligence Report editor-in-chief Mark Potok said in a speech, “I want to say plainly that our aim in life is to destroy these groups, to completely destroy them.” Former Intelligence Project director Heidi Beirich said “there is a price to be paid” for organizations she adds to the list.
In May 2025, the SPLC published its annual “Year in Hate and Extremism 2024″ report, which included a section titled “Turning Point USA: A Case Study of the Hard Right in 2024,” placing the organization in its “Dismantling White Supremacy” series. Kirk responded on television, warning the designation would put his organization “in the crosshairs” and citing the FRC shooting as evidence.
He said, “They’re literally putting high school chapters of ours on a hate group list next to the KKK and neo-Nazi groups… Remember that there was a shooter who went to the Family Research Council years ago, inspired by the SPLC list.”
On September 10, 2025, less than four months after the designation, Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, while speaking at a Turning Point USA campus event attended by approximately 3,000 people.
He was struck by a single bullet fired from a rooftop approximately 142 yards away and was pronounced dead at a local hospital. The day before the assassination, the SPLC’s Hatewatch newsletter published an article naming Kirk and Turning Point USA as extremists.
The suspect, Tyler James Robinson, 22, surrendered to authorities on September 11. Prosecutors charged him with aggravated murder and said they would seek the death penalty.
Text messages Robinson allegedly sent to his roommate said he had planned the shooting for just over a week and had “enough of his hatred.” Robinson allegedly told his father he killed Kirk because “there is too much evil and the guy spreads too much hate.” Bullet casings carried inscriptions including “Hey fascist! Catch!”
Utah Governor Spencer Cox stated there was “clearly a leftist ideology” and that Robinson had been radicalized online through “the Reddit culture and these other dark places of the internet.” Investigators did not establish a direct link to the SPLC designation in the charging documents, unlike the FRC case, where Corkins explicitly cited the hate map in his FBI confession.
In December 2025 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, TPUSA Executive Vice President Andrew Sypher said Kirk’s warning had “proved prophetic.”
House Judiciary Subcommittee Chairman Chip Roy stated: “As with FRC, in the aftermath of Charlie’s assassination, there have been no retractions, no accountability, and no acknowledgment of the risks inherent in branding mainstream political figures as existential threats.
These incidents, separated by 13 years but linked by the same targeting architecture, underscore a sobering reality. The SPLC’s designations don’t merely stigmatize. They can serve as ideological permission slips for individuals already willing to commit political violence.”
The SPLC also used its designations to exclude Christian organizations from donor platforms. Amazon’s AmazonSmile program relied on the SPLC to determine charity eligibility, barring designated Christian organizations while groups including Planned Parenthood and the Satanic Temple remained eligible. In 2017, D. James Kennedy Ministries filed a federal lawsuit against the SPLC, Amazon, and GuideStar USA after Amazon denied its AmazonSmile application based on the SPLC designation.
The ministry sued for defamation, religious discrimination, and trademark violation. Ministry president Frank Wright stated: “Those who knowingly label Christian ministries as ‘hate’ groups, solely for subscribing to the historic Christian faith, are either woefully uninformed or willfully deceitful. In the case of the Southern Poverty Law Center, our lawsuit alleges the latter.”
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed dismissal, ruling that “hate group” was too ambiguous a term to be provably false and that the ministry had not adequately alleged actual malice. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case. In 2020, House Judiciary Republicans sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos requesting a briefing on how AmazonSmile made eligibility determinations based on SPLC information.
The SPLC has also filed litigation opposing religious school funding, including a 2025 challenge to Tennessee’s universal voucher law and a motion to intervene against the Wilberforce Academy of Knoxville, a Christian charter school seeking public funds to provide biblical education. Courts ruled the “hate group” label constitutionally protected opinion, a legal shield the indictment now calls into question. An organization facing charges of financial fraud and manufacturing extremism served for years as a primary intelligence source used by federal law enforcement to target Christian organizations.
The former staffer who alleged Eric Swalwell raped her in 2024 is cooperating with the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation, according to CNN.
Earlier this month, the Manhattan District Attorney launched an investigation into Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell over serious allegations of sexual assault.
The San Francisco Chronicle recently published a story about a woman who claimed that Democrat Eric Swalwell sexually assaulted her twice.
The woman, who worked as a staffer in Swalwell’s office for two years, told the San Francisco Chronicle that Swalwell began pursuing her just weeks after she was hired at the age of 21 in 2019.
After the San Francisco Chronicle dropped its bombshell report on Swalwell, three additional women spoke to CNN and provided evidence about alleged additional misconduct by the California Democrat.
The Swalwell staffer said she was sexually assaulted by Swalwell in 2019
The staffer also said Swalwell raped her years later in 2024 after she left his employment.
The unidentified former female staffer sat down with CNN and recounted some of the horrific details about the alleged rape that occurred in 2024.
“I went to the bathroom, and I don’t remember anything after that,” she said, adding that she “remembered the next day.”
“I can see flashes of that evening of him on top of me, me pushing him off, him grabbing me. It was a lot more aggressive. It was aggressive,” she said about the 2024 assault.
“He didn’t stop. He didn’t stop. I woke up the next morning naked, alone in his hotel. I, for a moment, didn’t even know that I was in his hotel room. That’s how intoxicated I was,” she said.
CNN said they corroborated the woman’s claims by speaking with friends and family that she confided in. CNN also reviewed photos and screenshots of contemporaneous text messages. The outlet reviewed a message from her medical provider the week after she received the pregnancy and STD test calling her a “survivor.”
On Friday, CNN reported that Swalwell’s accuser has retained counsel and is cooperating with the Manhattan DA’s investigation.
A former staffer who accused former California Rep. Eric Swalwell of raping her is now cooperating with an investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, she told CNN.
The woman, who said Swalwell raped her in a New York City hotel in April 2024, shared her story with CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this month. She also accused Swalwell of having nonconsensual sexual contact with her after a night of heavy drinking in California in 2019, when she worked for him as a junior staffer.
The Manhattan DA’s office launched an investigation into the allegations a day after CNN’s initial report. Swalwell dropped out of the California governor’s race shortly afterward, and then resigned his seat in Congress.
Swalwell said at the time that “these allegations are false,” and vowed to “defend myself with the facts and where necessary bring legal action.”
The Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Oversight Committee has given Rep. Ilhan Omar a firm May 5th deadline to turn over all records and communications related to her possible involvement in the infamous Feeding Our Future scandal.
The demand follows Omar’s refusal to appear at a scheduled committee hearing earlier this week, despite being formally invited.
Committee Chair Rep. Kristin Robbins, a Republican, confirmed the congresswoman “ghosted” the panel and failed to respond to multiple outreach attempts.
“The fact that she ghosted us — she would not even respond to multiple inquiries to a state legislature where she used to serve,” Robbins said, according to a report from NewsNation. “I think it shows disdain for Minnesota taxpayers that she’s unwilling to even answer these questions.”
In a formal letter sent to Omar on April 22, Chair Robbins is now requiring:
All written and electronic communications between Omar’s office and the convicted owners/operators of Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis (a key Feeding Our Future site where Omar held multiple campaign events).
Communications with more than a dozen individuals who have already been convicted in the massive fraud case.
Records related to Omar’s sponsorship of the MEALS Act — the 2020 federal legislation that dramatically loosened eligibility rules for child nutrition programs during COVID, which prosecutors say directly enabled the fraud.
If Omar fails to comply, the committee has signaled it will explore further legislative and congressional options, though state lawmakers have limited direct enforcement power over a member of Congress.
The Feeding Our Future case involved the theft of more than $250 million in federal child nutrition funds meant for meals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prosecutors have described it as one of the largest fraud schemes in American history.
Much of the money went to luxury cars, jewelry, real estate, and even overseas accounts, primarily funneled through Minnesota-based nonprofit organizations tied to the local Somali community.
Safari Restaurant was identified as a major “meal site” that submitted millions in fraudulent claims. Omar has long had public ties to the restaurant, including holding campaign events there and appearing there to promote related programs.
The Minnesota House committee has repeatedly accused Omar of helping enable the fraud through her sponsorship of the MEALS Act, which removed key guardrails on reimbursements for meal providers.
“She created the conditions that allowed all these bad actors to come in and bill for thousands of meals a day,” Robbins said. “One little tiny restaurant serving 5,000 meals a day, seven days a week — it was incomprehensible numbers.”
Omar has not publicly responded to the committee’s deadline or her refusal to appear at the hearing.
“The American people and certainly the taxpayers of Minnesota deserve her to come and answer these questions,” Robbins said. “If she had nothing to do with it, if she had no ill intent, if she had no idea — she should come and defend that.”
“STUPID” & “JACK SH*T” – ILHAN OMAR’S RESPONSE WHEN ASKED ABOUT HER $30M NET WORTH “CORRECTION”
