[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
On Tuesday President Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Charlie Kirk, on what would have been his 32nd birthday. On September 10, as Kirk conducted a peaceful event at Utah Valley University, an assassin gunned him down. Across the nation, people honored his legacy of courage, faith and family values. Quick to respond was Rep. Ilhan Omar.
“There is no legacy to honor,” said the Minnesota Democrat, a native of Somalia. “It was a legacy filled with bigotry, hatred, and white supremacy.” People wanting a civil debate are “full of shit,” Omar said, and “there is nothing more fucked up than to pretend that his words and actions haven’t been recorded and in existence for the last decade or so,” and so on.
That eruption prompted Congress to draft a resolution to censure Omar and strip her of committee assignments. The House voted 214-213 to table the resolution, joined by four Republicans: Mike Flood of Nebraska, Cory Mills of Florida, Jeff Hurd of Colorado, and Tom McClintock of California, who explained:
Ilhan Omar’s comments regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk are vile and contemptible. They deserve the harshest criticism of every man and woman of good will. But this disgusting and hateful speech is still speech and is protected by our First Amendment. Censure is formal punishment by the House and we have already gone too far down this road. Omar’s comments were not made in the House and even if they were, they broke no House rules. A free society depends on tolerating ALL speech — even hateful speech — confident that the best way to sort good from evil is to put the two side by side and trust the people to know the difference. Congress exists for this purpose. For this reason, I voted to table the censure resolution.
Everybody knew Omar’s remarks were vile and contemptible, and that the First Amendment protects that sort of speech. Rep. McClintock, who is not a lawyer, made an issue of where Omar made the speech, and whether it broke congressional “rules.” In effect, McClintock deployed the Constitution to protect Ilhan Omar from censure. This calls to mind McClintock’s response to Biden Department of Homeland Security boss Alejandro Mayorkas.
While proclaiming the border secure, Mayorkas ushered in more than 10 million illegals, violent criminals among them, with no background checks or health records. The Biden junta shipped these invaders across the country at public expense and provided them with government benefits. Democrats defeated a bid to impeach Mayorkas, joined by Republicans Ken Buck of Colorado, Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin and Tom McClintock of California.
In a 10-page memo, McClintock said the two articles of impeachment “fail to identify an impeachable crime that Mayorkas has committed” and “in effect. . . stretch and distort the Constitution in order to hold the administration accountable for stretching and distorting the law.” The California Rep told reporters that his position “is in support of our Constitution and the process that makes this government run.” Beyond the rhetoric, different dynamics are in play.
When they began to attack the left, David Horowitz and Peter Collier found that Republicans were good at politics but bad at political combat. For this crowd, Congress is an exclusive club and fellow members are not to be disturbed. For members like McClintock, the rule is not the Constitution but what leftist Democrats and CNN might say about them. On that basis, McClintock rejects a bid to impeach Mayorkas and censure the loathsome Ilhan Omar. She is on record that “some people did something” on 9/11, but there more to the Minnesota Democrat.
John Hinderaker of the Center for the American Experiment, based in Minnesota, is quite familiar with Ilhan Omar. The Harvard law grad, who understands the Constitution, is on to Omar’s marital exploits and efforts to commit immigration fraud. Hinderaker calls Omar as “a world-class faker and fraud.” but the windy McClintock is afraid to call her out.
Compare golfer Phil Mikelson, who after murder of Charlie Kirk said “Ilhan spews hate every time she opens her mouth, she came here fraudulently and will hopefully be sent back to Somalia soon.” Not if Rep. McClintock can help it, and this is hardly a rhetorical issue. As Daniel Greenfield notes, there are more illegal aliens in Congress than people might think, and others aspire to join the ranks.
Consider the man calling himself Ammar Campa-Najjar, who worked on Obama’s 2012 campaign and gained a post in the White House. After the “Palestinian Mexican-American” announced a run for Congress in 2018, he was outed as the grandson of Muhammad Abu Yousef al-Najjar, mastermind of the Palestinian terrorists who abducted, tortured and murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
Ammar is the son of Palestinian Authority official Yasser Najjar, a fugitive after the Munich attack. Ammar claims his father “migrated from the Middle East to America on a student visa,” met a Mexican-American lady named Abigail, and raised a family in San Diego county, but there’s a problem.
Back in 2003 Linda Gradstein of National Public Radio interviewed Yasser Najjar at his office in Gaza. Yasser was married, with four children, but his wife and children were not named. The Democrat rock star, as he was billed by Rolling Stone, lost to Duncan Hunter in 2018 and Darrell Issa in 2020. After losing the Chula Vista mayor’s race in 2022, the Munichian candidate joined the Navy. Watch for him to run again for Congress, billed as a proud veteran.
In the meantime, Democrats are gearing up for 2026, led by California voter-fraud boss Alex Padilla, the senator nobody voted for. Democrats brought in millions of illegals to replicate California’s imported electorate nationwide. Countering immigration fraud and voter fraud is going to take more courage than California Republican Tom McClintock has been showing. By contrast, in his brief career, Charlie Kirk demonstrated the courage it will take to keep the nation free.