On the October 21 broadcast of All In with Chris Hayes on MS NOW, Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar sat down for a softball interview in which Hayes echoed CBS News’ voter-intimidation allegations, and Omar reinforced them by accusing the President of trying to scare Americans away from voting in the November midterm elections. Hayes linked the federal search of Omar’s Washington, D.C., home to a separate Homeland Security investigation into possible noncitizen voting, suggesting both were part of a Trump administration intimidation campaign.
Since when did investigating possible violations of federal immigration laws and whether noncitizens illegally registered or voted in federal elections become voter intimidation?
Hayes said:
“There’s CBS has been reporting that these officers from HSI, the same folks that went, you know, searched your house, having showing up the doors of other people, immigrants and asking them questions about whether they register to vote.”
He then repeated CBS’s voter-intimidation narrative, which Omar would later echo:
“Part of the undertaking by the Trump administration, I think, clearly to intimidate people. Is that your understanding of what this was about?”
Notice what Hayes did there. He identified the federal agency involved in both investigations, connected the two on national television, and then characterized the administration’s motive as voter intimidation. But what does an investigation into noncitizen voting have to do with a federal criminal investigation involving Omar’s immigration paperwork?
The investigation involving Omar concerns possible false statements and immigration fraud connected to paperwork dating back to her childhood. Agents searched her home pursuant to a judicially authorized warrant. The other investigation concerns potential illegal voting by noncitizens, with federal agents questioning residents about their immigration status and voter registration. These are different matters, yet Hayes treated them as pieces of the same political conspiracy.
Omar was happy to go along with it. She suggested that the Trump administration was trying to satisfy conservative influencers who had been demanding action against her, claiming that those supporters were beginning to lose faith that the administration would follow through on its promises.
“They’ve done this sort of full press where they kept alluding to the fact that something was going to happen to me. And I think a lot of their right-wing influencers who seem to have direct connection to not just the president but his orbit, I think they were starting to lose faith that these were empty promises and they had to do something, I believe, to say, ‘Hey, look, we raided her house. Now you can feel comfortable that we are doing something.'”
But Omar was already being investigated by federal authorities during President Joe Biden’s administration. In June 2024, Biden’s Justice Department reportedly opened an investigation into her finances, campaign spending, and dealings with a foreign national. That investigation reportedly stalled. A separate investigation involving possible immigration fraud led to the October 12 search of her home under Trump.
Omar portrays the search as political theater designed to satisfy Trump’s supporters, but federal investigators were already examining her activities during Biden’s presidency. If Omar was being investigated under Biden, why should viewers automatically assume that an investigation under Trump must be politically motivated?
She said:
“I think ultimately their goal is to intimidate and like scare people, um, from, from wanting to participate and vote.”
That is ridiculous. So now people are supposed to believe that investigating Omar’s immigration records is intended to keep Americans from voting? Oh please, tell us more. And how does investigating possible illegal voting amount to intimidating eligible American citizens?
American citizens have the right to vote in federal elections. Noncitizens do not. Enforcing that distinction is not voter suppression.
Then Omar offered what she considered evidence that the administration’s supposed intimidation campaign was backfiring. She said that while traveling to the interview, she was receiving reports about early voting:
“There’s a massive line at early voting sites.”
She added that her staff was struggling to accommodate requests from people needing transportation to vote:
“We just, we don’t have the capacity to keep up with the requests that we’re getting.”
Omar suggested that Trump’s alleged effort to discourage voting was having the opposite effect. But a report of long lines and increased requests for rides does not establish why those people are voting, which candidates they support, or whether total turnout will break any records.
There is an actual increase in Minnesota early voting. On October 22, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon reported that approximately 202,000 voters had already cast ballots, about 17% more than at a comparable point in the 2022 midterm election. But Simon also acknowledged that voting earlier does not necessarily mean more people will vote overall. Some voters may simply be casting their ballots sooner. And President Trump himself is encouraging early voting. On October 3, he urged Republicans not to wait if their state offers early voting. So why should Omar assume that increased early voting is a reaction against Trump when Trump is actively encouraging his supporters to vote early?
Omar provided no evidence establishing that Trump’s immigration enforcement policies caused the lines she described. She offered anecdotes, opinions, and Hayes supplied the political narrative. Neither explained how a federal criminal investigation involving a sitting member of Congress demonstrates a plot to intimidate American citizens out of voting.
But that’s what happens in a softball interview. Instead of pressing Omar to explain her accusations, Hayes helped make them for her. CBS News pushed the voter-intimidation allegations, Hayes repeated them, and Omar reinforced them. Three voices pushing the same narrative, without establishing that these separate investigations were part of a campaign to intimidate legitimate voters. Fake news indeed.
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