Opinion: Jonathan Turley Says Chris Hayes Let Ilhan Omar Off the Hook in His Interview
The law professor argues the MS NOW host laughed through fraud questions and never pressed Omar on her birth name, DNA evidence or marriage claims. He stresses the allegations are unproven.
This is a summary of an opinion column. The views belong to Jonathan Turley, not to RightNewsRightNow.
The argument. Turley writes that MS NOW's Chris Hayes had Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., "in the hot seat" on Wednesday and never asked the questions that matter. He says Hayes sounded "more like a supplicant than a journalist."
His evidence. He says it took 12 minutes for Hayes to raise immigration fraud at all, and Hayes introduced it by asking "How seriously do you take it?" after saying, "I am trying to figure out the way to do this that doesn't sound like I'm insane." Turley says Hayes laughed with Omar about marriage fraud questions and told her "there is not even a kernel of truth" to them. When her finances came up, Turley says, Hayes asked about her "lifestyle," not about the drop from a disclosed $30 million to a little over $100,000. He also says Hayes spent more time on how Omar felt about Barack Obama defending her than on the allegations, and closed by asking, "Do you ever just want to tap out?"
What he concedes. Turley says repeatedly that the allegations are unproven and that little evidence has been confirmed to support the underlying charges. He says asking questions "is not to assume that the underlying claims are true," but to get Omar's side. He also writes that she has been "remarkably unforthcoming" and has called the allegations racist or Islamophobic without addressing specifics. He adds that a Washington judge found probable cause of criminal conduct to support the recent search.
The 10 questions. Fox's text of the column as we reviewed it did not carry the list itself, so we cannot summarize them. Turley's headline says Hayes did not ask about DNA evidence, her birth name or marriage claims.
Note for readers: these are the author's views. Omar has denied marrying Ahmed Elmi for immigration fraud, as our earlier report covered. We have not seen the Hayes interview.