Barack Obama: “The people of Cote d'Ivoire elected Alassane Ouattara as their President, and Laurent Gbagbo lost the election.”

The full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president.

The effort, he said, “should outrage all Americans, regardless of how they feel about Congresswoman Omar’s political views.”

People need to “rediscover what’s the story we tell about how we’re going to live together, and see each other, and recognise each other, and disagree, and yet, still care for each other”.

I’m going to insist that we can do better than we’re doing right now.