Ilhan Omar called to abolish the Minneapolis Police Department in 2020 and the city never forgot it.
Now she is on CNN telling America that no serious Democrat believes in defunding the police.
The woman she personally endorsed for Wisconsin governor just blew that story apart.
Ilhan Omar Went on CNN to Deny Democrats Want to Defund the Police
With November closing in, Democrat leaders have spent weeks trying to sand down their most radical edges – quietly scrubbing records and hoping voters have short memories. Omar's CNN appearance Tuesday night was the latest installment.
CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins gave Rep. Ilhan Omar every opportunity to come clean about her party’s support for defunding the police.
Collins noted directly that candidates Bernie Sanders endorses have called for defunding the police – and asked Omar whether she agreed with his claim that no serious Democrat believes it.
Omar ducked. She told Collins that "there are some parts of the United States, back in 2020, that had some reckoning to do in regards to what it looked like to have a public safety that centered actually safer communities" – and when that conversation got nationalized, the messaging "gets sort of lost in the void."
Defunding the police was justified. It just got bad press.
She defended the movement – in softer language – and hoped Collins would move on.
Collins pressed again. Omar said Sanders was "talking about someone putting forth a piece of legislation" and "to that regard, I would say that he is right."
Nobody "serious" has introduced a defund bill since 2020. So technically, the lie holds. For now.
Francesca Hong Is Running for Wisconsin Governor on the Same Abolish Police Values She Always Had
Francesca Hong is a 37-year-old socialist state representative and the frontrunner in Wisconsin's Democrat gubernatorial primary on August 11 – a race Omar has personally endorsed her to win.
In August 2020, Hong posted publicly: "I support defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police." In 2021, she wrote that "police exist to uphold white supremacy."
She never deleted either post.
Fox News pressed Hong's campaign on whether her position had changed. Her communications director issued a statement that collapsed Omar's entire CNN performance in one sentence: "Her values haven't changed, but the way she talks about this issue has."
The candidate Ilhan Omar is actively campaigning to put in the Wisconsin governor's mansion holds those same values today. She has simply been told to stop saying it out loud until after the election.
At a Milwaukee debate, Hong was asked directly whether she would sign a budget cutting police funding. She said: "The governor cannot defund police, and I am not here to govern by slogan."
The candidate who wrote that defunding is "a first step towards abolishing the police" now argues she lacks the authority to do it. She is running for the office that would give her the power to pursue it.
Bernie Sanders Denied Democrats Want to Defund Police Then Said He Hopes We Abolish Prisons
Bernie Sanders started this chain on August 5, appearing on Pod Save America to tell host Jon Favreau that "no serious person I know who is running for office believes in defunding the police."
Fox News immediately surfaced the candidates Sanders was counting on viewers forgetting: Brad Lander, who explicitly called to strip funds from the NYPD. Darializa Avila Chevalier, who ran on abolishing prisons. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who campaigned in 2020 on defunding the police.
Then RNC Research released a second clip from the same Sanders interview. In it, Sanders said: "In terms of doing away with prisons, I hope the day comes."
Same interview. Same week. Nobody serious wants to defund the police – but abolishing prisons is a dream Sanders is happy to share.
Omar went on CNN the next night and signed her name to that story.
The DSA 2026 Platform Calls for Abolishing Police Prisons and Borders
The DSA's own website is not ambiguous. The DSA Abolition Working Group's published platform calls for defunding police "by rejecting any expansion to police budgets or scope of enforcement while cutting budgets annually towards zero."
On July 26, DSA national co-chair Megan Romer went on Fox News Sunday and confirmed the full agenda on camera: abolish the Senate, abolish ICE, abolish prisons, defund the Pentagon, open borders, mass amnesty for illegal aliens.
DSA candidates are not a fringe anymore. Claire Valdez won her primary in New York's 7th congressional district. Darializa Avila Chevalier took the 13th. Brad Lander won the 10th. Melat Kiros walked into Colorado's 1st District and knocked out a Democrat who had held the seat for decades.
These are not protest candidates. They are the incoming class.
Ilhan Omar knows all of this. She helped build it.
Standing on CNN and telling Kaitlan Collins the movement does not exist was not a mistake or a misstatement. It was the strategy – run out the clock until November, and let Francesca Hong govern exactly the way her own campaign already admitted she would.
Democrats have run this play before. Kamala Harris spent the entire 2024 campaign trying to distance herself from positions she had championed on camera – on Medicare for All, on fracking, on defunding the police. Voters watched her disavow her own record in real time and sent her home anyway.
Left-wing radicalism lives on tape. Sand down the language, skip the press conferences, coach the candidates to say "I am not here to govern by slogan." The posts are still up. The interviews are still archived. And the campaign manager already told the press the values have not changed.
Ilhan Omar knows that better than anyone. She just hoped America forgot.
Sources:
- Joseph Chalfant, "Bernie Sanders Is Lying Through His Teeth," Townhall, August 5, 2026.
- "Sen. Bernie Sanders Claims 'No Serious Person' Believes in Defunding the Police," Fox News, August 8, 2026.
- "Prison Abolition: Don't Let Socialists Fool You," The Daily Signal, August 8, 2026.
- "Wisconsin Gov. Candidate Francesca Hong Called to Defund, Abolish Police," Fox News, May 24, 2026.
- "Wisconsin Dem Socialist Gubernatorial Hopeful Dodges Whether She Still Wants to 'Abolish Police,'" Fox News, July 2026.
- "Top Wisconsin Democratic Socialist Candidate Confronted on Past 'Defund Police' Rhetoric," Fox News, August 2026.
- "Abolish the Senate. Abolish ICE. Abolish Prisons. The DSA Says Yes," Deseret News, July 27, 2026.
- DSA Abolition Working Group platform, dsausa.org.
- Ian Hanchett, "Omar on if Any Candidates Support Defunding Police: There Hasn't Been Legislation, Messaging Can Get 'Sort of Lost in the Void,'" Breitbart, August 7, 2026.