Rep. Ilhan Omar addressed controversial comments about slavery, U.S. border patrol, and 9/11, and decried the "implied intent" that critics impose on her statements. "I'm only controversial because people seem to want the controversy," Omar said.



She also responded to Nicholas Haros, the son of a 9/11 victim who spoke out against Omar at the 18th-anniversary event in New York while wearing a "some people did something" T-shirt.





"9/11 was an attack on all Americans. It was an attack on all of us, and I certainly could not understand the weight of the pain that the families of the victims of 9/11 must feel," Omar said on CBS's "Face the Nation."



"It’s important for us to make sure that we are not forgetting the aftermath of 9/11, [when] many Americans found themselves now having their civil rights stripped from them, and so what I was speaking to was that as a Muslim, not only was I suffering as an American who was attacked on that day, but the next day I woke up as my fellow Americans were now treating me as suspect," she also said.



"Some people would say, 'Ilhan you should speak a certain way, Ilhan, you should do something a certain way,' and I believe that’s contradictory to the purpose of my existence in this space."



"I believe that my constituents sent me to make sure that I was bringing in a conversation that others weren’t having, that I was speaking for people who have felt voiceless for a long time," she added.