Disgusting Trump

When Donald Trump suggested on Wednesday that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) once married her own brother in an immigration fraud scheme, he demonstrated the remarkable degree to which even the most far-off corners of the right-wing internet can launch unproven, anonymous claims into the national political discourse.

  

Well, it should be noted that it wouldn't have entered national political discourse if the FUCKING PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & HIS TROLL SUPPORTERS HADN'T INTRODUCED IT.

The president had been asked by a reporter from the pro-Trump One America News Network about whether his administration was investigating Omar “for possibly marrying her brother.” In response, Trump hinted that “somebody” in the government was looking into the matter.

“There’s a lot of talk about the fact that she was married to her brother,” Trump said. “I know nothing about it. I hear she was married to her brother.”

"A lot of talk." I certainly never heard any until this. Who's talking like that? Let's guess. It wasn't in "the national political discourse" before this.

The claim that Omar married her own brother as a way for him to gain a green card has been embraced by a number of conservative pundits with ties to the president, including commentator Dinesh D’Souza, talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh, and One America host Jack Posobiec. On Thursday, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson discussed it on his show.

There's a list of responsible, respectable people if I ever saw one.

Omar, who didn’t respond to requests for comment, has denied that her ex-husband is her brother. And for good reason. What many of the smear’s promoters never reveal to their audience is both the evidence Omar has provided to disprove their conspiracies and the fact that the completely unproven idea that she married her brother is based entirely on a single, anonymous, unsourced allegation initially made on an obscure internet forum.

In August 2016, as Omar was poised to defeat a longtime incumbent from the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party primary for a state legislature seat in Minnesota, an anonymous post appeared on a Somali diaspora forum called Somali Spot. A user named “AbdiJohnson,” who identified himself in his bio on the site as a Trump supporter, posted a thread called “ILHAN OMAR MARRIAGE FRAUD EXPOSURE.”

[...]

AbdiJohnson never provided any evidence for his claim, and searches of Somali Spot posts show that the user was notorious on the site as a troll known for making up claims to rile up the site’s other members. The post was later deleted.

[...]

That didn’t stop the claim from getting picked up days later by Minnesota lawyer Scott Johnson.

[...]

“Let me note here that Omar’s marriage to her brother, if it occurred in fact, is illegal under Minnesota law,” Johnson wrote.

[...]

Johnson has continued to write stories suggesting Elmi is Omar’s brother, writing his latest post about Omar on Thursday. Johnson confirmed to The Daily Beast that the original claim that Omar married her brother was based on the deleted Somali Spot post.

[...]

The story was kept alive by Alpha News, a conservative Minnesota politics site with ties to a Republican donor.

Alpha News reporter Preya Samsundar launched a lengthy but inconclusive investigation into various social-media posts, which she claimed “suggests” Omar married her brother.

[...]

Samsundar was hardly a neutral observer or reporter in the matter. She is now a communications staffer for the Minnesota Republican Party and didn’t respond to a request for comment.

When we start getting convicted by random social media posts, we're truly lost. The Stasi has risen from the grave.

Like other promoters of the smear, Samsundar had seized on social-media posts in which someone with Elmi’s name refers to Omar as his “sister.” But according to Somali language experts and language learning websites, “brother” and “sister” can be terms of endearment in Somali that don’t necessarily constitute a familial relationship.

For gods' sakes, people. It's also the case in English. Particularly in religious circles. Jesus wept.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.