Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) told Breitbart News on Wednesday that maybe if Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) visited Somalia, “she might come back and appreciate America more.”

The senator was responding to a question on why he defended President Donald Trump over his recent tweets that had sparked outrage among many on the left.

“I’ve met people who have come here from behind the Iron Curtain,”Paul said. “They got away from communism, they’re some of the best Americans we have, because they really appreciate how great our country is, and then I hear Representative Omar say America is a terrible place.”

“Well, she came here and we fed her, we clothed her, she got welfare, she got [schooling], she got healthcare, and then, lo and behold, she has the honor of actually winning a seat in Congress, and she says we’re a terrible country? I think that’s about as ungrateful as you can get,” continued the senator.

“And so — I’m willing to contribute to buy her a ticket to go visit Somalia,” he continued, “and I think she can look and maybe learn a little bit about the disaster that is Somalia — that has no capitalism, has no God-given rights guaranteed in a constitution, and has about seven different tribes that have been fighting each other for the last 40 years.”

“And then maybe after she’s visited Somalia for a while,” Paul added, “she might come back and appreciate America more.”

Sen. Paul spoke to Breitbart News at Turning Point USA’s annual Teen Student Action Summit in Washington, DC, where 1,500 high school students from across the country gathered to hear the senator speak, among several other prominent conservative figures, including President Trump.

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