District Club: Rep. Ilhan Omar Raid, New Press Secretary Debacle & Talarico’s Texas Trouble

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Ben Domenech (1:17)

The midterm elections have all eyes on tight races and districts across the country, but the week started with a surprise bang as federal agents conducted a pre-dawn raid on the DC area home of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Her critics were quick to throw her own words back in her face. No one is above the law. Katie Zachariah takes over for Caroline Leavitt as White House press secretary. The president pulls the plug on the Pentagon's plan to live stream the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan with polling showing most Americans agree.

On the campaign trail, James Talarico is back in the public eye in a CNN town hall. A Catholic voter pressed him on abortion. Does his answer hold up in Texas? In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed says his family has no ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. The posts from his sister tell a different story. We've got a lot to get to. This is the District Club.

Tim Rice (2:20)

Welcome back to another episode of the District Club. I'm Tim Rice, DailyWire, DC Bureau Chief. Joined as always by my colleagues, Ben Domenech, DailyWire Opinion Editor and Mary Margaret Olohan, our White House correspondent. And we are so excited today to be joined by Antjuan Seawright. He is the CEO of Blueprint Strategies and a Democrat strategist. Antjuan, thank you for joining the District Club.

Antjuan Seawright (2:41)

I am so happy to be with you all on a great Sunday.

Tim Rice (2:43)

So much talk about, but I think we should just start. Let's start with the elephant in the room. Katie Zachariah, new White House Press Secretary, had her first briefing. It lasted a grand total of 14 minutes. She took three questions.

Critics say that she took questions exclusively from conservative outlets. Ms. Zachariah says that the Daily Mail is not conservative, but nevertheless, I don't even think we need to talk about how she did. I think everyone acknowledges that it was a tough start, maybe a start. But where do you think this leaves the administration? And what does it say that this very high-profile public relations appointment kind of fizzled out right away?

Antjuan Seawright (3:24)

I think this is another page in the catalog of unqualified people doing very serious jobs. Unserious people doing very serious jobs. In the real world, my Republican friends love to compare the political world to the business world. In the real world, she would not even qualify for an interview, better yet get the promotion to the job. So I think this is another page in the catalog. I think she's a DEI hire, didn't earn it.

In the sense that there are more people qualified in Trump world who have more credentials on the head and on the tail, who will be better at the job. But I think she got the job for various reasons that do not meet the qualifications for the job.

Tim Rice (4:07)

Mary Margaret, I figured that you have a different take?

Mary Margaret Olohan (4:10)

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, look, if we're going to talk about DEI hires, we're going to have to talk about Corrine Jean-Pierre, who was the exact definition of a DEI hire. When you talk about her gender, her race, all the reasons that she was chosen for the job, which the Biden administration literally said, this is why we chose her.