Ilhan Omar has never been shy about going after people she disagrees with.
But her latest target raised more than a few eyebrows.
And what Omar said about Jerry Seinfeld after his three-word answer outside Madison Square Garden is something the comedian is unlikely to forget.
A Walk Out of the Garden Turns Into a Political Firestorm
The whole thing started when Seinfeld left Game 4 of the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden and was approached by an influencer with a camera and a microphone. The streamer called out to him and asked, “Can we get a ‘Free Palestine?'” Seinfeld laughed and answered, “It doesn’t exist.”
Three words. That was it. He kept walking.
TMZ caught up with Omar to get her reaction. What followed was not a measured policy disagreement. It was a full-throated character attack on a 72-year-old comedian for answering a street-corner ambush with a quip.
A reporter asked Omar, “Jerry Seinfeld has said again last night, ‘Palestine doesn’t exist.’ Do you think that’s dangerous rhetoric for someone with such a big platform?” Omar answered, “I think Jerry Seinfeld has been really horrific human being and an example when it comes to talking about the reality of the genocide that Israel has carried out.”
She wasn’t done.
“And I think when people prioritize their own people in the interest of harming others, it’s very dangerous. And I don’t think you’d think of him as like just a celebrity and someone who has a platform in that danger. But it is dangerous just as a human being to talk the way that he does. It’s very disgusting. It’s very disturbing and it’s very genocidal language that he uses and people need to call him out for it.”
Omar also told TMZ: “For him knowing that his people suffered the Holocaust and experienced what genocide looks like, for him not to recognize the genocidal language that he’s using to wipe out a whole group of people is very disturbing, and people need to recognize that.”
When the reporter asked what she would say to Seinfeld directly, Omar did not soften.
“Be a human. Care about other people. And Palestinians do exist. They are real people. They are ethnic to the land in which they belong. And Israel is the one that is taking their land, not the Palestinians.”
This Was Not Seinfeld’s First Rodeo
Since the Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians in October 2023, Seinfeld has been open about his disdain for the concept of a Palestinian nation. He hasn’t been hiding it, and nobody ambushing him outside sporting events should be surprised by what they get.
Three days after the Hamas attacks on Israel’s South, Seinfeld posted on Instagram: “I lived and worked on a kibbutz in Israel when I was 16, and I have loved our Jewish homeland ever since. My heart is breaking from these attacks and atrocities. We survive and flourish, no matter what. I will always stand with Israel and the Jewish people.”
During a solidarity visit in December 2023, Seinfeld and his wife visited Kibbutz Be’eri and met with the families of hostages and those who had returned from Hamas captivity.
In February 2025, an influencer who asked Seinfeld for a selfie recorded himself saying “Free Palestine” while standing next to Seinfeld. “I don’t care about Palestine,” Seinfeld said.
In September 2025, Seinfeld spoke at a Duke University event where he compared the “Free Palestine” movement to the Ku Klux Klan. “Free Palestine is, to me, just — you’re free to say you don’t like Jews. Just say you don’t like Jews,” Seinfeld said, according to The Duke Chronicle. “By saying Free Palestine, you’re not admitting what you really think,” Seinfeld added.
He went further at that Duke event, stating that “compared to the Ku Klux Klan, I’m actually thinking the Klan is actually a little better here, because they can come right out and say, ‘We don’t like Blacks, we don’t like Jews.’ OK, that’s honest.”
None of that is ambiguous. Seinfeld has been making his position clear in public, repeatedly, for the better part of three years. He isn’t hiding from the controversy — he’s walking straight through it.
What Omar’s Reaction Actually Tells You
Think about what just happened here. A sitting Member of Congress called a private citizen a “horrific human being” and accused him of using “genocidal language” because he declined to endorse a political slogan when a streamer shoved a microphone in his face outside a basketball game.
Omar, who represents Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District (D-MN), has a long track record of inflammatory statements that drew far less outrage from the media than Seinfeld’s three-word sidewalk answer. In a 2018 interview with Al-Jazeera, Omar said, “I would say our country should be more fearful of White men across our country, because they are actually causing most of the deaths within this country.” That remark didn’t earn the wall-to-wall “dangerous rhetoric” treatment from the same press corps now amplifying her Seinfeld attack.
But here she is, calling a comedian dangerous for saying three words while walking through a crowd.
The pattern is worth noticing. Omar spent years in Congress building a political identity around the Israel-Gaza conflict. She has made it a central part of her brand, her fundraising, and her national profile. When a figure as prominent as Seinfeld refuses to play along and dismisses the whole premise in three words, it doesn’t just sting — it undercuts the narrative she has spent years constructing.
Calling him “genocidal” is not a policy argument. It’s a silencing tactic. The goal isn’t to debate Seinfeld on the merits. The goal is to make the cost of disagreement high enough that the next celebrity thinks twice before saying what Seinfeld said.
Unlike younger Hollywood A-listers, Seinfeld is at a stage in his career where it doesn’t matter if he offends a segment of his fan base. He doesn’t have to play the “keep quiet or it will damage your career” game. That’s exactly what makes him such a frustrating target for the people going after him.
And that’s probably why Omar’s response was so scorched-earth. When you can’t intimidate someone into silence, you try to destroy their reputation instead.
Seinfeld, for his part, kept walking.
Sources: Mediaite, TMZ, The Duke Chronicle, Jerusalem Post, Yahoo News