JD Vance Tweets Random, 7-Year-Old Clip to Accuse Ilhan Omar of Using…‘Genocidal Language’

Seemingly not satisfied with allegedly killing the Pope last month, Vice President JD Vance appears determined to now endanger the life of progressive trailblazer Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), too. On Monday, for no apparent reason, Vance shared a resurfaced, out-of-context, seven-year-old clip of Omar that was originally reposted by the far-right troll account LibsOfTikTok. In the clip from 2017, Omar speaks with journalist Mehdi Hasan about the far-right, white supremacist violence in the U.S. and how it’s overwhelmingly committed by white men—a crisis that continues today. “Our country should be more fearful of white men across our country because they are actually causing most of the deaths within this country,” she says, before adding that we should be “monitoring and creating policies” to combat the radicalization of white men. 

“This isn’t just sick; it’s actually genocidal language. What a disgrace this person is,” Vance tweeted, sharing the video. 

For one thing, I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with these comments at all; the last person who should be taking offense is Vance, who’s part of an administration that is actively demonizing immigrants and communities of color, and advocating for policies that deny them the most basic human rights. And, for another, in the clip, Omar is talking about data published by the Anti-Defamation League. “In this nearly 8yr old clip, I am referring to the rise of white nationalism in an annual report issued by the Anti-Defamation League that said white supremacists were responsible for 78 percent of ‘extremist-related murders,’” Omar replied to Vance on Twitter. “PS you should look up what ‘genocidal’ actually means when you’re actively supporting a genocide taking place in Gaza.”

In this nearly 8yr old clip, I am referring to the rise of white nationalism in an annual report issued by the Anti-Defamation League that said white supremacists were responsible for 78 percent of “extremist-related murders.”

PS you should look up what “genocidal” actually… https://t.co/KHtLymx2fW

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) May 5, 2025

Beyond Vance’s apparent addiction to Twitter and following LibsOfTikTok, there appeared to be no real rhyme or reason to Vance’s Monday tweet. Before accusing Omar of “genocidal language” against white people, our vice president was idly tweeting defenses of Trump’s post portraying himself as the Pope and endorsing his brother for mayor of Cincinnati.

But ganging up on Omar is clearly a deliberate distraction from the fact that the Trump administration is single-handedly lighting the economy on fire. On Sunday, Trump also quite literally denied that he has a duty to uphold the Constitution as president, despite swearing an oath to do so on Inauguration Day. 

In any case, by resurfacing a clip from before covid on a platform increasingly teeming with monetized, racist vitriol and violent speech, Vance obviously knew what he was doing. Omar, in particular, has been the object of extensive racist attacks from not just right-wing trolls but Republican officials. In February, one of her co-workers in Congress, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas), advocated for Omar, a citizen, to be arrested and deported; in a racist screed written to fundraise, he baselessly accused her of “facilitating a full-scale invasion of our country,” adding that “a normal society would refer to that as treason.” This was all because Omar hosted know-your-rights trainings for undocumented immigrants, reminding them that they have the right to not talk to ICE. Gill’s attacks on Omar also used manipulated clips that were taken out of context.

Let us not forget that, on the campaign trail, Vance baselessly lied that his own Haitian constituents in Ohio were stealing and eating cats and dogs—actively endangering, again, the very people he was elected to represent. And despite being married to an Indian-American woman and being the father of Indian-American children, Vance, in January, publicly defended a DOGE employee who, just months earlier, publicly advocated for “Indian hate” and white nationalism. If Vance was so offended by Omar’s tweet, it’s because he is himself a huge part of the radicalization pipeline for white men, cultivating white nationalist spaces with propaganda about immigrants and communities of color.

Like what you just read? You’ve got great taste. Subscribe to Jezebel, and for $5 a month or $50 a year, you’ll get access to a bunch of subscriber benefits, including getting to read the next article (and all the ones after that) ad-free. Plus, you’ll be supporting independent journalism—which, can you even imagine not supporting independent journalism in times like these? Yikes.