Washington (CNN) A new interview with Rep. Ilhan Omar in which she appears to criticize former President Barack Obama as insufficiently progressive is the latest example of the freshman congresswoman's penchant for taking on the Democratic Party establishment, though she later disputed the report's characterization of her remarks.

In an interview published Friday, Politico quoted the Minnesota Democrat as dismissing the "hope and change" promoted by Obama as a "mirage" -- though she wasn't quoted using that word -- and she also criticized Obama for the "caging of kids" and "droning of countries around the world."

Omar also told Politico, "We can't be only upset with Trump. ... His policies are bad, but many of the people who came before him also had really bad policies. They just were more polished than he was.

"And that's not what we should be looking for anymore. We don't want anybody to get away with murder because they are polished. We want to recognize the actual policies that are behind the pretty face and the smile."

The story characterized her description of Obama's policies as functioning within the same "fundamentally broken framework" as Trump, though Omar didn't cite Obama by name in that section of the published material.

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