Rep. Ilhan Omar gave an unusual response Wednesday when directly asked whether she was related to former husband Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, calling longstanding allegations that she married her brother \u201cinsane\u201d before answering that the two were not related \u201cto my knowledge.\u201dThe Minnesota Democrat addressed the allegation during an interview with MS NOW host Chris Hayes, her first extended television interview since Homeland Security Investigations agents searched her Washington, D.C., residence on October 12 as part of an ongoing immigration fraud investigation.<\/p>\n
Hayes noted that President Donald Trump and other critics have repeatedly alleged that Elmi was Omar\u2019s brother and asked whether there was any \u201cweird kernel of truth\u201d behind the accusation.\u201cNot to my knowledge,\u201d Omar replied.<\/p>\n
Omar\u2019s Unusual Response
\nHer response quickly drew attention because she avoided simply answering \u201cno\u201d when asked whether she and Elmi were related.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody put in there that, you know, he had to have been my brother or something to that effect,\u201d the Minnesota Democrat said.<\/p>\n
She added that the allegation first appeared on a \u201cSomali blog\u201d before being spread by \u201cright-wing conspiracy theorists.\u201d<\/p>\n
Omar said unidentified people later claimed she had introduced Elmi as her brother, but Omar dismissed those accounts as \u201cinsane\u201d and said she did not know the individuals making them.<\/p>\n
The Decade-Old Allegation
\nThe allegation dates back roughly a decade and holds that Omar legally married Elmi in 2009 as part of an immigration scheme, but no publicly available evidence has conclusively established that Elmi is her biological brother.<\/p>\n
Ilhan Omar gets asked point blank if she married her brother.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Martin Walsh (@martinwalsh__) October 22, 2026<\/p>\n
Omar has repeatedly denied the accusation, previously describing it as a false and offensive attack on her family and immigration history.<\/p>\n
The issue has gained renewed attention because federal investigators are now examining Omar\u2019s immigration records, although reporting indicates that the current investigation extends well beyond the allegation involving Elmi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rep. Ilhan Omar gave an unusual response Wednesday when directly asked whether she was related to former husband Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, calling longstanding allegations that she married her brother \u201cinsane\u201d before answering that the two were not related \u201cto my knowledge.\u201dThe Minnesota Democrat addressed the allegation during an interview with MS NOW host Chris […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11992,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11990\/revisions\/11992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timeshow.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}