Omar says she has faced increase in death threats since Trump tweet

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said she has received an increase in death threats since President Trump shared an edited video on Twitter that featured images of the 9/11 terrorist attack with Omar’s comments spliced in between.

Omar put out a statement Sunday night detailing the blowback she has faced since Trump posted the video.

{mosads}“Since the President’s tweet Friday evening, I have experienced an increase in direct threats on my life — many directly referencing or replying to the President’s video,” Omar wrote in a statement.

New Rep. Ilhan Omar statement: “Since the President’s tweet Friday evening, I have experienced an increase in direct threats on my life—many directly referencing or replying to the President’s video.” pic.twitter.com/j9ajDLefYz

— Amanda Terkel (@aterkel) April 14, 2019

“Violent rhetoric and all forms of hate speech have no place in our society, much less from our country’s Commander in Chief,” Omar added. “We are all Americans. This is endangering lives. It has to stop.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said earlier today that she had spoken with the House’s sergeant-at-arms to ensure Capitol Police conduct a security assessment for Omar and her family. 

Omar’s colleagues, including Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who, along with Omar, is one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, have warned Republican attacks on Omar may incite violence against her, a charge her conservative critics have denied.

Last week, conservatives resurfaced a speech from last month that Omar made to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in which she said some equated all Muslims with the 9/11 hijackers in the wake of the attacks.

“CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties,” she said. Trump and others seized on her phrasing to accuse her of minimizing the attacks.

Weeks ago, a New York man was arrested for allegedly threatening to murder Omar.