There is an interest in putting us in a box of constantly defending our identities.

And I am not interested in being in a box.

I am interested in defending my ideas and not my identity.

I'm Mehdi Hassan. Welcome to Deconstructed.

We have an exclusive on the show today.

Ilhan Omar, freshman house Democrat and one of the first two Muslim American women

ever elected to Congress.

Talks to me for the first time about how she found herself in the middle of that huge controversy over anti-Semitism.

She tells me why she's opposed to US intervention in Venezuela.

And she makes it very clear that she won't be bullied either by right wing critics or by far right death threats.

It's her first national and first broadcast interview since she hit the headlines earlier this month.

The purpose of the apology was to make sure that the people who were hurt felt understood and heard.

And leaving the tweets up no longer would be part of that.

I wanted to make sure that we made amends.

So this week, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar on anti-Semitism and Islamophobia,

on APAC and Israel and on the fight for a new progressive foreign policy.

She's fast becoming a household name.

Ilhan Omar has been in the news for all sorts of reasons, good and bad in recent weeks.

She's been targeted by a white nationalist domestic terrorist.

Lieutenant Christopher Hassan made a hit list of prominent members of the Democratic Party,

including Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

And last weekend, a pair of idiotic alt-right social media activists,

...