Rep. Ilhan Omar has words for President Donald Trump, who suggested that the recent attack on her was a hoax.
“Blame is very interesting, but facts are more important, and what the facts have shown since I’ve gotten into elected office is that every time the president of the United States has chosen to use hateful rhetoric to talk about me and the community that I represent, my death threats skyrocket,” Omar said during a press conference a day after her attack.
On Jan. 27, during a town hall meeting, Omar was attacked by a man with an unknown substance believed to be apple cider vinegar. The man has since been identified as 55-year-old Anthony J. Kazmierczak. Despite being tackled by Omar’s security, Kazmierczak continued to shout at her. He was ultimately arrested.
Following the attack, as Democrats rallied in support of Omar and the work she is doing in Minnesota, President Donald Trump accused the Minnesota representative of planning the attack.
“I think she’s a fraud,” he told ABC News, claiming he has not seen the video footage of the attack. “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.”
Trump’s latest comments align with his strained history with Omar. As previously reported by theGrio, in December, President Trump insulted the Minnesota representative of Somali descent, claiming she “does nothing but b*tch.”
“She comes from a country that’s a disaster…it’s not even a country. Okay? It barely has a government. I don’t think it does. They’re good at one thing: pirates,” he said of Somalians at the time before encouraging the crowd to chant “send her back.”
Since then, Omar has called out Trump’s “creepy obsession” with her, recalling his consistent attacks towards her from the time she was a state representative to the moment she became a member of Congress.
“It was maybe my second or third week when he started attacking me. I became a freshman who nobody should have actually known […] to having the most death threats of any member of Congress,” she shared, explaining how this resulted in having a 24-hour security detail for her and her family. “Then he came back into office, and he reassumed his vitriol. And now, my death threats are the highest of the members of Congress.”
According to Omar, the attack during her town hall was fueled by the President’s rhetoric surrounding immigration and specifically the Somali community. She says Kazmierczak “was specifically upset that Trump’s order to deport Somalis was not yielding enough deportations of Somalis. So he wanted to come get the person he thought was protecting the Somalis.”
“I do believe that the facts of the situation are that I wouldn’t be where I am at today, having to pay for security, having the government to think about providing me security, if Donald Trump wasn’t in office,” she shared, before emphasizing that “fear and intimidation” does not work on her. “My only message is it hasn’t worked thus far and it’s not going to work in the future.”
