Ilhan Omar (D-MN) accused Donald Trump of endangering her life with a retweet — and now she wants him to lose access to the social media platform altogether.
The notorious Trump foe said that the president “spread lies that put my life in danger” after he shared a misleading video of Omar dancing to “celebrate black women in Congress.” Terence K. Williams, a black comedian and Trump supporter, shared the video claiming that Omar was “partying on 9/11.” Omar has responded by saying that Trump should be deplatformed.
“The President of the United States is continuing to spread lies that put my life at risk. What is Twitter doing to combat this misinformation?” Omar wondered.
Trump retweets spurious claim
Williams tweeted the video of Omar dancing Wednesday and claimed she “partied on the anniversary of 9/11 because she believes ”some people just did somethings,'” a reference to Omar’s infamous description of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. Trump shared the tweet, pouring fresh fuel onto his conflict with Omar and her allies in the House “Squad.” As he has done previously, Trump joked that Omar was helping to elect Republicans in Minnesota.
IIhan Omar, a member of AOC Plus 3, will win us the Great State of Minnesota. The new face of the Democrat Party! https://t.co/aQFEygSa4D
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 18, 2019
In a reply to Trump, Omar pointed out that the video was actually from a Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) event on Sept. 13 and explained that she was not in fact “partying on 9/11.” The Democrat said that Trump was endangering her life with the tweet, which Williams ultimately deleted. In reality, the video depicts Omar and other lawmakers dancing during the CBC’s annual legislative conference. In a statement to Politico, Omar said that Trump should be banned from Twitter.
“They have a responsibility and they set community standards and clearly the president has shown many-a-times that he has violated their community standards,” she told Politico. “I don’t even know why his account is not fully suspended — why he’s not deplatformed.”
But it looks like the Twitter rules only work one way for Omar. Back in January, the congresswoman smeared the Covington Catholic high school boys, claiming that they yelled “it’s not rape if you enjoy it,” taunted black men and led “racist chants.” She later deleted the tweet.
Omar’s continued deflection
Omar was quick to argue that Trump’s false claim fits a pattern of “lies” he has allegedly told about the lawmaker and that Trump was “continuing” to spread falsehoods about her. While this particular claim was indeed spurious, Omar’s many controversies can hardly be pinned on the president — and Americans have many legitimate questions about her feelings toward this nation, about Islamic terror groups, and about ther numerous scandals related to possible tax fraud, campaign finance violations, an alleged extramarital affair, marriage fraud and immigration fraud.
The Democrat’s offensive description of the 9/11 attacks as being a day when “some people did something” echoed poignantly on the 18th anniversary of the atrocity, when the son of a World Trade Center victim called out Omar at a Ground Zero memorial service, saying, “Madam, objectively speaking, we know who and what was done.” Omar responded by doubling down, refusing to apologize and again claiming that the significance of 9/11 was that Muslim-Americans lost their civil liberties in its aftermath.
Omar’s 9/11 controversy is not a smear; it’s a product of her own words. But Omar has consistently invoked her religious and ethnic identity to shut down criticism, claiming that skeptics of her patriotism or personal history are “inciting violence” for bigoted reasons simply by questioning her outrageous public statements or inquiring about her murky personal history. Omar continues to feed doubts and engender suspicion by shutting out reporters and scrubbing strange curious media posts.
This week, Omar deleted a 2013 tweet wishing her father, whom she identified as Nur Said, a happy Father’s Day. Critics pointed to the post as evidence that Omar’s ex-husband, Ahmed Elmi Nur Said, is actually her brother as has been long alleged. Omar responded by accusing her critics of spreading libelous conspiracy theories, and claimed that Nur Said is a nickname for “Happy Light” — but not everyone is buying it.
Meanwhile, Democrats have consistently flocked to her defense, enabling Omar to claim that her controversies have been manufactured by Republicans seeking to destroy her. While Trump’s retweet was undeniably inaccurate and wrongheaded, let’s not pretend that Omar is blameless for the skepticism that now surrounds virtually everything she says and does.
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