Ilhan Omar
Rep. Ilhan Omar is laying out her case in increasing calls to prosecute Russian President Vladimir Putin at the ICC - an international court that the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine are not part of. Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) fired back at Vice President Mike Pence as the two continued to spar over the political crisis in Venezeuala. The fight started after Omar, earlier this week, held the Trump administration responsible for the escalating situation in Venezuela, where the opposition is trying to wrest power from the socialist government of Nicolas Maduro.

Omar, a one-time Somali refugee and freshman Congresswoman, is one othe progressive Dems who have stayed in the headines through their articulation of socialist ideas and criticism of the Trump administration and its policies. She has been critical of the Trump administration’s efforts to force Maduro out of office.

In his latest salvo aimed at Pence, Omar said on Twitter: "Women of colour have heard before." She said, “Instead of ‘We disagree,’ it's ‘She doesn't know what she's talking about. They have to make us feel small. This from an Administration that thinks climate change is a Chinese hoax.”

Earlier this week Omar had told Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! about the situation in Venezuela:“A lot of the policies that we have put in place has kind of helped lead the devastation in Venezuela, and we sort of set the stage for where we are arriving today." She added that “This particular bullying and the use of sanctions to eventually intervene and make regime change really does not help the people of countries like Venezuela and it certainly does not help and is not in the interest of the United States."

In response, while talking to Fox News, Pence was unforgiving: “The Congresswoman doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” he said and went on to hold Maduro responsible for the crisis gripping Venezuela.

“Nine out of 10 people in Venezuela live in poverty. Three million people have fled Venezuela. That's not a result of U.S. policies. That's the result of dictatorship and socialism that has been imposed on people of Venezuela by Nicolas Maduro," Pence said.

Republican senator Marco Rubio, too, supported Pence’s statement on Omar. He told Fox News that “She’s making it up. Honestly, I don’t even feel like addressing the comment because it’s not an informed one, it’s not an intelligent one, it’s silly, it’s ridiculous and it’s embarrassing.”

Looks like the last shot in this battle is yet to be fired.

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