Tensions between President Donald Trump and Democrats reached a peak during his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, with the two sides clashing over his remarks about immigration and allegations of fraud.
Democratic lawmakers shouted at Trump as he talked about illegal immigration and a fraud investigation into the Somali community in Minnesota.
He declared that Democrats should be “ashamed , “You should be ashamed!” Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., shouted back at Trump.
President Trump has spent years demonizing and dehumanizing the Somali-born Democrat from Minnesota, fueling escalating threats against her.
President Trump riled up a rally crowd on Tuesday night describing immigrants bent on harming and killing Americans, he singled out one person in particular as an example of a bad actor.
Foreigners coming into the United States, he told his audience in Iowa, “have to show they can love our country; they have to be proud — not like Ilhan Omar.”
The crowd booed. They recognized the name of the Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, whom the president has demonized and dehumanized for years with racist and xenophobic attacks, venting that she should “go back” to her country, referring to her as “garbage,” and mocking her hijab by calling it a “little turban.”
Not long afterward, at her own event in North Minneapolis, Ms. Omar was attacked by a man who rushed the lectern where she was speaking, spraying her with a strong-smelling liquid.
The scene, which unfolded as Ms. Omar was calling for the resignation of Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary who has carried out Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown, was shocking but hardly surprising.
It was exactly the type of situation that has caused so many lawmakers to cancel town hall events, in an era when violent threats against public officials have skyrocketed, becoming a chillingly routine part of the job.
But Ms. Omar is something of a special case. A Somali-born Muslim woman elected to Congress in an era defined by Mr. Trump’s bigoted attacks against immigrants, Ms. Omar has in the past seen death threats against her rise to the highest levels among U.S. lawmakers.
When those threats have surged after Mr. Trump has targeted her by name, Ms. Omar has sometimes been assigned a 24-hour security detail from the Capitol Police. That added protection is available at the discretion of the House speaker.
But for the past year, Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has not offered it to her, she noted in an interview last December. After the attack on Ms. Omar made a formal request for extra Capitol Police protection and Mr. Johnson agreed, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Ms. Omar’s campaign also sent out a fund-raising appeal to help her afford the private security that is often with her when she appears in public.
Ms. Omar knew there was a possibility of violence erupting when she walked into her town hall on, prepared to address a community on edge after the killing of Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents.
And when she was attacked, Ms. Omar reacted with defiance. She did not cower behind the lectern; she instinctively lunged at the man attacking her and insisted on finishing her remarks even as her security detail and staff tried to persuade her to retreat. She did not cancel other events for that week and held a news conference at Karmel Mall in Minneapolis.
In short, Ms. Omar barely flinched.
“I’m built that way,” Ms. Omar said calmly as she left the community room at Urban League Twin Cities after her event, reminding a CNN reporter that she was a survivor of war.
Her reaction to the incident underscored Ms. Omar’s identity as a feisty fighter whose grit in the face of years of attacks portraying her as a dangerous political saboteur has only appeared to embolden Mr. Trump. He has raged against her using violent language of the sort that can motivate extremists and provoke assaults such as the one that unfolded recently.
“Ilhan’s toughness in the face of a bully and in the face of threats is what pisses off people like Donald Trump,” Representative Greg Casar, Democrat of Texas, said in an previous interview
Her response was so stoic that her political adversaries online used it to back up their conspiracy theory that the attack had been staged, a charge that Mr. Trump quickly leveled.
Ms. Omar “probably had herself sprayed, knowing her,” he told ABC News.
Trump asserted in a previous Truth Social post that Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota should either be locked up in jail or sent to Somalia.
Ilhan Omar says she never thought she’d see what’s happening in the ‘U.S. god—- States’Video
Omar expressed horror at the state of what she called the “U.S. god—- states” during a Democratic field hearing in St. Paul.
Trump asserted in a recent Truth Social post that Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota should either be locked up in jail or sent to Somalia.
“There is 19 Billion Dollars in Minnesota Somalia Fraud. Fake ‘Congresswoman’ Illhan Omar, a constant complainer who hates the USA, knows everything there is to know. She should be in jail, or even a worse punishment, sent back to Somalia, considered one of the absolutely worst countries in the World. She could help to MAKE SOMALIA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump declared in the post.
“ICE is removing some of the most violent criminals in the World from our Country, and bring them back home, where they belong. Why is Minnesota fighting this? Do they really want murderers and drug dealers to be ensconced in their community? The thugs that are protesting include many highly paid professional agitators and anarchists. Is this really what Minnesota wants?” the president asked in another post in Truth Social post.
Omar recently drew criticism for referring to the nation as the “U.S. God—- States.”
Omar, who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since early 2019, was born in Somalia and became a U.S. citizen in 2000.
Trump’s theatrical State of the Union address offers little hint of any change in course
