A short excerpt will do, from an unequivocal editorial -
Olson: Emmer drops to new low ― even for him
The cruelty of his “assimilate or go home” comment, directed at Minnesota’s Somali community, defies understanding.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
Yes, the 65-year-old Republican remains the elected member of the Sixth Congressional District. He’s also the Majority Whip, the No. 3 spot, in the U.S. House hierarchy. He’s drawing a government check, and he’s got fabulous federal health insurance that likely covers the knee scooter he needs to get around the Capitol.
But Emmer’s no longer bothering to consider a portion of his district that includes up to 15% of the state’s Somali population, all but a tiny percentage of whom are here legally.
Emmer’s been in Congress since 2015 and he’s never flown higher than right now, thanks to his allegiance to every execrable utterance from President Donald Trump.
I’m obligated to remind you that Emmer has signed on with Trump after the president, with a single post on social media in 2023, spiked Emmer’s aspirations to ascend to the speakership of the U.S. House. At the time, Trump crowed, “He’s done. It’s over. I killed him.”
In response, Emmer transmogrified into the president’s permanent lapdog lest he be left off the list of bootlickers welcome at Mar-a-Lago on any given weekend.
No spine. No value. Showing a willingness to kiss Trump's ass. On cue, no questions asked. After Trump fucked him over on the speakership chance.
And the part of the headlining Strib added to the item, "[...] defies understanding." is untrue. We can understand precisely what we are seeing and called to deal with.
A willing racist demagogue barking dog, from a start years ago as a quaint local rural man.
He won Michele Bachmann's seat, and has found a way to outdo Bachmann in venomous publicly declared hate.
With Bachmann her scapegoat was gay people.
With Emmer it is Somalis. Ilhen Omar, a well assimilated Somali woman and Democratic House colleague of Emmer responded aptly, with grace, calmly noting that Doug Chapin is seeking the MN CD6 seat Emmer currently occupies.
Chapin has proven himself a gentleman in all aspects, experienced and well able to join Omar in Congress, with their joint goal being bettering the nation after Trump, Emmer and all Trump's allied others are replaced.
One final reflection back to the editorial -
Speaking at a “conservative town hall” sponsored by the nonprofit Faith & Freedom Coalition in D.C. last Thursday, Emmer punched down hard.
“Minnesotans are so afraid that you’re gonna call us ‘a racist,’ you’re gonna call us ‘an Islamophobe,’ you’re going to call us some name, that we just don’t want to get into that fight,” Emmer said. “You know what? I would argue that I never did care, but I’m done being careful, even the least bit careful.”
“They don’t assimilate,” he continued. “And if they don’t assimilate, then they should go the hell back to where they came from.”
I asked to interview Emmer on the topic. In response, his spokeswoman Sally Fox said, “That would be a total waste of his time. There’s nothing to add, and while it may come as a complete shock to the Star Tribune, most Minnesotans agree with Congressman Emmer.”
[...] History shows that assimilation takes time, at least a generation, and who does Emmer think he is to tell immigrants to give up their heritage?
Emmer’s led a good life. He grew up playing hockey in Edina and caddied at Interlachen Country Club. He’s married with children and grandchildren. He has a son with a high-profile job in Congress and a daughter who’s a broadcaster for the Minnesota Twins and the Wild.
At the peak of his professional life, with access to the nation’s highest office, Emmer’s focused on demeaning those with less rather then giving them a hand up.
Is this all just cynical performance politics to maintain his proximity to power? [...] In 2015, he and then-Democratic U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison created the Somalia Caucus, which sought to push for peace and defeat al-Shabab in that East African nation.
Ellison's kept the faith. Ellison remains who he's been.
It becomes undeniably clear Emmer set conscience aside to bare his worse racist teeth, in homage to Trump and Christian Nationalism in hope of being reelected as a racist fear-mongering regular Republican stiff. Seeking to keep a House seat by sacrifice of decency, for the Trump gutter. Emmer appears not to be as personally corrupt as Trump, but choosing to be a running dog nonetheless..
I believe in those of my neighbors who maintain the aggressive masked ICE melitiamen who invaded Minnesota for Trump and murdered Renee Good and Alex Pretti have to be prosecuted. With Emmer, not surprisingly, by his absolute silence absenting himself from holding that group belief that justice be served. The man is done, as a man, even if racism reelects him. He sold out cheap. Win or lose, cheap.
We're absolutely lucky Chapin is such an exceptionally fit alternative.
Chapin, win or lose, is the better and more skilled human being.
UPDATE: The latest, Emmer reads a statement that perhaps Steven Miller wrote for him. Trashing Ilhen Omar. The unsaid part, she's got brown skin too. [CORRECTION. This item is dated April 21, 2026, months ago, and not current news. Crabgrass was in error to post it as current. Nothing current seems to be online about Emmer's assertions; see also, this April 2026 link,]
FURTHER: PiPress covers the Emmer racism, no paywall and with a CSPAN video clip of it, with the item noting midway -
“Minnesotans are so afraid that you’re gonna call us ‘a racist,’ you’re gonna call us ‘an Islamophobe,’ you’re going to call us some name, that we just don’t want to get into that fight,” said Emmer, the majority whip in the U.S. House of Representatives. “You know what? I would argue that I never did care, but I’m done being careful, even the least bit careful.”
Emmer, who since 2015 has represented Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, went on to criticize what he described as a lack of assimilation among members of the state’s Somali community.
“And if they don’t assimilate, then they should go the hell back to where they came from,” he said.
Emmer has previously linked Minnesota’s recent public assistance fraud cases to members of the Somali community, drawing criticism from opponents who argue his comments unfairly characterize the broader community.
“I’m not afraid to stand up for what is right,” Emmer wrote in recent candidate questionnaire response to St. Cloud LIVE. “Whether it’s demanding answers from (Gov. Tim) Walz and (Minnesota Attorney General Keith) Ellison about their involvement in fraud or calling out Somali fraudsters who have ripped us off for too long, I’ll always fight for the men and women of our great state.”
Doug Chapin, a Democrat running to unseat Emmer, released a statement Thursday night criticizing Emmer’s remarks.
“If you’re more concerned about being called a racist than about saying racist things, you’ve lost sight of what public service is supposed to be,” Chapin said. “The problem isn’t that people might call you a racist. The problem is that using your position of authority to make statements dehumanizing an entire community makes you a racist.”
FURTHER: MSN reposts a Strib item with the repost, unlike the original, open and not behind a paywall. In closing it reported -
Before Trump was elected, the first-term Republican congressman defended Somalis against community pushback in St. Cloud. Emmer argued that as long as they moved into the community legally, “You don’t get to slam the gate behind you and tell nobody else that they’re welcome.”
But a decade later and now one of the most powerful Republicans in the country, Emmer was one of the chief defenders of Trump’s crackdown on Minnesota’s Somali community during Operation Metro Surge.
Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota’s highest-ranking Somali politician, whom Emmer and Trump frequently denounce, shot back at the congressman’s remarks.
“I assimilated all the way to Congress and this idiot still tells me to go back where I came from,” Omar said on X, urging her followers to support Emmer’s Democratic opponent, Doug Chapin, in the midterms.
Gov. Tim Walz also condemned Emmer’s remarks on social media.
“Imagine flushing your reputation down the toilet for the privilege of being Donald Trump’s skin tag,” Walz said.
The story has earned widespread coverage and for further links or future ongoing coverage readers can find more via
web search = latest news emmer remarks about somali residents in US
The Crabgrass guess is there will be a few more legs grown onto the story, but that Emmer may survive basically, with no law to back him up, on his bare opinion of Somali legal residents in the US, that they must "assimilate" with nothing further said by what he means by the word, or what authority is relies upon in pontificating "assimilation" is or should be some requirement of immigration law or that he'd like to make it so.
Emmer's mouth ran ahead of his brain. But now he willingly owns it. He is a bigot for what he said. He refuses to modify or recant. He went beyond criticizing immigrants who violate law, as problematic, to those simply not meeting has opinion of sufficient assimilation being demons. That was wrong. Wrong headed. Wrongful speech.
He was free to say it. We are free to judge from there to who Emmer really is and whether others might handle the Congressional seat better. Leave it there for now.
FURTHER: Emmer judges his intentional remarks enhance his chance of being reelected even with Trump polling numbers plunging while Trump says the same things.
What that says about Emmer's view of people in the district is vile. That one earlier quote, the spokesperson saying Emmer thinks most Minnesotans feel as he does. That hurts beyond any healing or change.
I am as upset as anyone else that criminals taking advantage of a program to see children in the nation are well fed was concentrated out of the Somali community, but there are thousands of Somali Minnesotan Americans, living and lawful, day in and day out; and to abuse and accuse each one of them, over bad conduct of tens of bad actors within their community, is to deny fairness to human beings with each as human as I am. That is not right. There is, after all, the golden rule, and a public official should never loose sight of that burden. That's a bottom line truth.
Now, leave it there. Enough has been written here, and other news exists and requires attention. There still is an unresolved war of choice.
Emmer is smaller than that. Less important.