Only 6 People Ever Expelled From Congress and Omar Could Be Number Seven

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]Ilhan Omar, you ever hear of her? She comes here from Somalia and she tells us how to run the United States of America. She says She says the Constitution gives me certain rights. Gives me certain rights.

[00:00:16]And I demand that I be given these rights. Get the hell out. What a phony.

[00:00:23]All right, well collect your winnings if you guessed Minnesota's Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Yesterday, that's why you should watch our show, we told you how Democrats in Minnesota bailed Ilhan Omar out voting against having her subpoenaed for refusing to provide the documents on her ties to the ringleader of the Minnesota Somali fraud scandal. In the history of the United States House of Representatives, only six people have ever been expelled.

[00:00:50]Three of them were for joining the Confederacy during the Civil War.

[00:00:54]Tonight, we look at the growing movement to make Congresswoman Ilhan Omar number seven. It is a story involving a quarter billion dollar fraud scheme, a failed subpoena, and a constitutional battle for accountability. Watch this. So we're going to play a little game called The Masked Swindler. This person blamed accounting errors that misrepresented her net worth by nearly $30 million.

[00:01:19]Wow. Had a winery that was supposedly worth $5 million just 2 years ago, but then it dissolved into thin air. Then refused to provide documents on her links to a Minnesota program that defrauded $250 million from taxpayers.

[00:01:34]If you watched the show yesterday, I think you know who we're talking about.

[00:01:37]The list actually does go on and on, but House Republicans are not letting her off that easily.

[00:01:44]Are you still going to push a vote to expel Ilhan Omar?

[00:01:48]Well, we're talking about it. We're waiting to get the data on the brother marriage thing, which I think is coming and I think once it's revealed and the documents >> marriage thing, that's where we are.

[00:01:57]we'll be okay.

[00:01:59]>> where we are as a country right now.

[00:02:00]We've got a member of Congress born in Somalia in Mogadishu who may have married her brother to get him into the country. Good evening. We begin tonight with a story that cuts to the very heart of how we hold our elected leaders accountable in this country. It is a story that has been building for years in the state of Minnesota, but it has now reached a boiling point in the halls of the United States Capitol. For most of American history, the idea of expelling a sitting member of Congress was considered a last resort, a nuclear option, save for the most extreme betrayals of public trust. But today, the conversation around Representative Ilhan Omar is no longer just about political disagreement. It is about specific documented allegations of fraud, ethics violations, and a refusal to answer questions before a state oversight committee. Watch this.

[00:02:51]That on the left was Florida Congressman Randy Fine. The guy on the right, Kierszen was the only Republican left in Maryland, Andy Harris. Democrats still want him out, but Randy Fine was saying that House Republicans are actually moving to expel Ilhan Omar from Congress, and he has also introduced a bill to ban dual citizens from serving in Congress. Although Omar herself is not technically a dual citizen, this total freak show Dan Bilzerian, who's running as a fake Republican against Randy Fine, is a dual citizen of America and of Armenia. So, Alex, Okay, so they want to ban dual citizens.

[00:03:26]I think there are two tracks going on here, right? There's the expelling Ilhan Omar thing, and there's also the banning dual citizens thing.

[00:03:33]>> Yeah, I think that those are Take them both on.

[00:03:35]>> I I'm very I'm interested in both, actually. I had a dinner conversation about um the dual citizen >> The To understand how we got here, we have to look at a massive child nutrition program in Minnesota known as Feeding Our Future. On its surface, the program was designed to do something noble, provide meals to hungry children during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. But investigators now say it became the site of a staggering $250 million fraud scheme. This was not just a simple accounting error. It was a systematic draining of taxpayer funds.

[00:04:10]And according to trial exhibits and Republican lawmakers in Minnesota, Representative Ilhan Omar's office may have had a direct relationship with the individuals who carried out this fraud.

[00:04:20]Watch this. It's all over the dinner table conversation.

[00:04:23]>> so first I'll talk about Omar. I am not going to hold my breath to see what House Republicans do. Um do I think that they should go forward? I you know, I think there's a lot of questionable activity surrounding Ilhan Omar. Um we talked yesterday about possibly why she's avoiding the subpoena is maybe some legal counsel not to say anything um given that she's under investigation.

[00:04:41]So we shall see there. The next part of your topic here, which I think is so incredibly interesting, was um what to do with dual citizenship and then serving in Congress. Who can you really pledge loyalty to if you are a dual citizen? I think that's a question. Um my dinner last night involved uh uh talking about people from China um and they don't recognize dual citizenship.

[00:05:04]So why would we do the same here? It also then kind of breathes um a new life into the whole birthright citizenship argument, which we're of course waiting for the Supreme Court to make a ruling on uh by the end of June. Yeah. The controversy centers on something called the MEALS Act, which Congresswoman Omar passed in March of 2020. This piece of legislation was intended to make it easier for schools and organizations to distribute food during the pandemic.

[00:05:28]However, critics and investigators now argue that this act effectively took the guardrails off the federal school nutrition program. They contend that by removing these protections, the MEALS Act created the perfect conditions for the Feeding Our Future scandal to flourish. Watch this.

[00:05:45]>> One of the things that I was wondering about on yesterday's show was why Democrats are so willing to go to the mat for Ilhan Omar. And Kirsten, we saw this happen in Minnesota with the state legislative Democrats there voting against transparency, voting against requiring her to comply with their subpoena.

[00:05:59]I mean, do you think that it is a wise move for them to keep circling the wagons around this woman?

[00:06:06]I think so. I think if Ilhan Omar committed fraud, she should be expelled from Congress. I think not only has she committed fraud, but she has ties to all kinds of fraudulent networks in Minnesota. It happened under Governor Tim Walz's nose. For years it went on, billions in fraud. This is just something that I know JD Vance, President Trump has installed him on the fraud task force, for example. This is something we need to get to the bottom of because it is unbelievable how the taxpayer has been been has been ripped off by these fraudsters for years.

[00:06:33]>> For months, the Minnesota House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee has been trying to get answers. They wanted to know why Representative Omar's office was communicating with the very people who were later convicted of this fraud. They wanted to know why some of these convicted fraudsters were donors to her political campaign. They even invited her to testify to explain her perspective on how the Meals Act impacted the community. But according to the committee, she never responded to their multiple inquiries. But while the effort stalled in Minnesota, it is gaining massive momentum in Washington, D.C. Florida Representative Randy Fine, a prominent Jewish Republican, has announced that he is actively considering forcing a vote to expel Ilhan Omar from Congress. Representative Fine has become one of Omar's fiercest critics, often engaging in sharp public exchanges with the Minnesota Democrat.

[00:07:26]He has pointed not only to the fraud allegations, but also to long-standing, though unproven, claims regarding her past. One of the most serious aspects of this push involves what Fine calls the brother marriage thing. This refers to an allegation that Omar may have married her own brother to help him gain entry into the United States. While Omar has consistently denied these claims, calling them vile and creepy, Fine says he is waiting for official data and documents before moving forward with a formal expulsion vote. He has stated plainly that he does not believe she should be a citizen, let alone a member of the house. The reaction from Representative Omar has been one of total dismissal. She told reporters that "Nobody takes that man serious." and suggested that Fine doesn't even take himself seriously. But the pressure is coming from more than just one representative. Congressman Mike Flood of Nebraska has also stepped forward, previewing his intention to file a formal complaint with the House Committee on Ethics. Flood argues that Omar's pattern of behavior and her public speech violate the official code of conduct for the House. He specifically cites clause one of rule 23, which requires members to act in a manner that reflects creditably on the House.

[00:08:44]This brings us to the constitutional reality of expulsion. Under Article 1, Section 5 of the US Constitution, the House has the power to expel a member, but it requires a 2/3 majority vote. In a House that is currently divided by a very slim margin, this is a massive hurdle. Republicans hold a small majority, which means that for an expulsion to succeed, nearly 85 Democrats would have to cross the aisle and vote against one of their own.

[00:09:13]To put this in perspective, we have to look at the history of the House. Since the founding of our country, only six members have been expelled. The first three were John B. Clark, John W. Reed, and Henry C. Burnett in 1861, all for supporting the Confederate rebellion. It took another 119 years before it happened again. In 1980, Michael Myers of Pennsylvania was expelled after being convicted of bribery in the Abscam scandal. In 2002, James Traficant of Ohio was removed after being convicted of 10 counts, including racketeering and bribery. And then, of course, there is the most recent case, George Santos. In December of 2023, the House voted 311 to 114 to expel the New York Republican after an Ethics Committee report found evidence of massive fraud and misuse of campaign funds. The Santos case is the modern blueprint for expulsion, and it is the one that Republicans are pointing to as they build their case against Omar. They argue that if fraud and financial misconduct were enough to remove Santos, then the $250 million Feeding Our Future scandal and Omar's alleged ties to it should warrant the same level of scrutiny. While expulsion is the ultimate punishment, the House has other ways to discipline its members. There is censure, which requires only a simple majority vote. A censured member must stand in the well of the House while the resolution against them is read aloud. We have seen a significant uptick in censures in recent years. In 2021, Paul Gosar was censured for posting a violent anime video. In 2023, Adam Schiff was censured over his role in the Russia investigations. That same year, Rashida Tlaib was censured for her comments regarding the war in Gaza.

[00:11:04]Representative Omar herself has been a target of these less severe measures.

[00:11:09]There have been formal moves to censure her and remove her from key committees, such as the Committee on Education and Workforce and the Committee on the Budget. But, for many of her critics, censure is no longer enough. They see a pattern of behavior that they believe goes beyond political speech and into the realm of criminal activity. The public discourse around this is incredibly fractured. If you look at the comments from across the country, there is a deep-seated frustration with the perceived lack of accountability for politicians. Many people feel that Congress is all talk and no action, and that nothing ever happens to those in power. Some are calling for jail time rather than just expulsion, citing the loss of taxpayer money. There is also a growing debate about the requirements for serving in Congress. Representative Randy Fine has introduced to ban dual citizens from serving in the house.

[00:12:03]While Omar is not a dual citizen, the debate has sparked a wider conversation about birthright citizenship and the oath of allegiance that naturalized citizens must take. Many citizens have pointed out that the oath of citizenship specifically requires a person to renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, state, or sovereignty. However, there is another side to this story.

[00:12:28]Representative Omar has long argued that the attacks against her are not based on facts, but on {quote} boilerplate xenophobia. She has pointed to the rhetoric of Donald Trump as a primary driver of the threats she faces. During a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump mocked her hijab, repeated the allegations about her brother, and told his supporters that she should be expelled from the country. Omar has stated that there is a {quote} clear correlation between this kind of language and the threat she receives. She noted that people have actually been incarcerated or are currently being prosecuted for threatening to kill her. This atmosphere of intense political division is not happening in a vacuum. We are seeing similar battles over political power and representation all across the country.

[00:13:13]In Tennessee, for example, the NAACP has filed an emergency lawsuit to block a new congressional map. They argue that the map was illegally redrawn to favor Republicans, and that it splits the state's only majority black district into three pieces. These legal and political fights over who gets to represent us and how they are held accountable are defining the current era of American politics. As we watch the situation with Representative Omar unfold, we have to consider what it means for the House as an institution.

[00:13:44]If the GOP moves forward with an expulsion vote, it will be a historic and highly controversial moment. It will force every member of Congress to take a public stand on whether the evidence against her meets the high bar set by the Constitution. The allegations are serious, a quarter billion dollars missing, ties to convicted fraudsters, and a refusal to cooperate with investigators. But the defense is equally serious, that this is a politically motivated witch hunt fueled by xenophobia and designed to silence a dissenting voice. In the coming weeks, we expect to see more data released regarding the marriage allegations. We expect to see whether the House Ethics Committee takes up the formal complaints filed by Representative Mike Flood, and we will see if Randy Fine follows through on his promise to quote bring the piece of paper that could force a vote on Omar's future. What is clear is that the public is watching. They are tired of the {quote} swamp where corruption seems to go unpunished. They are tired of different rules for politicians and ordinary citizens.

[00:14:49]Whether you support Representative Omar or believe she should be removed, the handling of this case will be a major test of the American system of checks and balances. The story of Ilhan Omar is about more than just one congresswoman.

[00:15:02]It is about the MEALS Act and the guardrails of our nutrition programs. It is about the power of a state to subpoena a federal official. It is about the definition of {quote} dual citizenship and the meaning of the oath of office. And ultimately, it is about whether the House of Representatives is willing to use its most extreme power to police its own ranks. As we have seen throughout our history, the House is slow to act when it comes to expelling its members. It took a civil war to expel the first three. It took federal criminal convictions to expel the next two. And it took a scathing ethics report and evidence of widespread campaign fraud to expel George Santos.

[00:15:43]The question now is whether the case against Ilhan Omar will follow that same path. The Republican leadership is walking a fine line trying to balance the demands of their base for accountability with the political reality of a 2/3 vote. If they fail, it could be seen as a sign that the House is unable to hold its members to any standard at all. But if they succeed, it will be a seismic shift in how political power is exercised in Washington. We will be following every development in this story as it moves from the committee rooms in Minnesota to the floor of the House in Washington. This is a story about the money we pay in taxes, the laws that govern our society, and the people we choose to lead us.

[00:16:25]Thank you for joining us tonight. We will keep you updated as more information becomes available. Good night.