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CNN Grills Rep. Omar On Tweet Accusing Lindsey Graham Of Being ‘Compromised’

CNN

Amber Athey Podcast Columnist
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Freshman Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar admitted Thursday that she has no evidence to back up her claim that Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is “compromised.”

CNN anchors Poppy Harlow and Jim Sciutto grilled Omar about her tweet insisting that “They got to [Graham], he is compromised!” Omar was responding to a video that showed Sen. Graham, who is now close with President Donald Trump, denouncing Trump in 2015. (RELATED: Democrats Won’t Challenge The Anti-Semitism In Their Party)

“We’ve gotta ask you about this,” Sciutto said. “I wonder if you would explain what are you talking about there. This has sparked a fair amount of criticism.”

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“So, over the last three years, we have seen many times where Sen. Lindsey Graham has told us how dangerous this president could be if he was given the opportunity to be in the White House and all of a sudden he’s … made a turnaround. I am pretty sure that there is something happening with him, whether it is, you know, something that has to do with his funding when it comes to running for office, whether it has something to do with the polling that they might have in his district [sic], or whether it has to do with some sort of leadership within the Senate. He is somehow compromised to no longer stand up for the truth and is fighting to protect the oath that he took in serving the American people.”

Sciutto pushed back on Omar, explaining that in order to make that claim about a U.S. senator, she ought to have evidence.

“The evidence really is present to us. It’s being presented to us in the way that he is behaving,” Omar claimed.

“But that’s not evidence,” Harlow asserted. “That’s your opinion, but now as a sitting member of Congress, you have tweeted, ‘they got him on this.’ Again, just based on what evidence?”

Omar finally admitted that she has no evidence to back up her claim and was only sharing her own “opinion.”

“My tweet was just an opinion based on what I believe to be visible to me, and I’m pretty sure there are lots of Americans who agree on this,” Omar said.

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