Rep. Ilhan Omar faults US for Venezuela's political crisis
The controversial freshman Democrat suggests that U.S. sanctions are partly to blame for 'devastation in Venezuela'; reaction and analysis from 'The Five.'
Fox News' Jesse Watters took on Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., over her criticism of the U.S. government's role during the ongoing push for regime change in Venezuela.
"I would issue a challenge to her. Omar, please say one good thing about America," Watters said on "The Five" on Thursday.
"We hear her so much saying what's wrong with America. Just say what you're proud of. I think that would counterbalance some of the negativity that you hear coming out of her mouth."
Omar faced a wave of criticism after she argued that President Trump's administration made the Venezuelan crisis worse through "bullying" and applying sanctions to the nation.
“A lot of the policies that we have put in place has kind of helped lead the devastation in Venezuela and we have sort of set the stage for where we are arriving today,” Omar told PBS' "Democracy Now!"
Russia and Cuba attempted to exert influence over the potential transfer of power from disputed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to opposition leader Juan Guaido.
Watters challenged Omar's accusation that the U.S. is "bullying" people in Venezuela and criticized socialism.
"America is not bullying the people of Venezuela. It is Maduro and the Russian-backed military that are taking away people's rights and shooting into the crowd and doing all those things. Also, this is what socialists do. When something good happens in the world, what they do is they say why can't America be like that country? And then when something bad happens in the world, they say that's America's fault that that's happening. They can never see the point that socialism is failing on its own."
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In his appeal to Omar, Watters also asked the congresswoman to stop siding with Russia: "At this point I want her to do this. Stop siding with the Russians. You say you want to start World War III over Russian interference with the election; now they are interfering physically in our hemisphere and you're siding with them," Watters said.
Fox News' Sam Dorman contributed to this report.
