Dogged by death threats and public attacks, Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar revealed in a chilling Twitter post on Wednesday why she requires a security detail.
“I hate that we live in a world where you have to be protected from fellow humans. I hated it as a child living through war and I hate it now,” the Somali-American politician wrote.
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Along with the tweet, Omar shared a photo of a recent death threat she received during the August recess.
The letter, steeped in racist, anti-immigrant language, reads:
“Ilahn Omar!! You will not be going back to Washington, your life will end before your “Vacation” ends. That being said, you won’t die alone, if that matter. Quite likely it will be at the Minnesota State Fair, that’s where the ,you won’t die alone, comes in. However, we have a very capable person with a very big “Gun”. They say we can’t get the Somali Stink out of the clean Minnesota air, but we’re going to enjoy the adventure.”
Omar sent the tweet in response to a tweet from Pacific Standard columnist David Perry, who posted a photo of Omar alongside her security guard as she gave a speech on immigration and detention.
This is far from the first time Omar has been publicly threatened.
In April this year, a mere four months into her tenure as a freshman congresswoman, Ilhan was besieged by death threats after Donald Trump tweeted a video splicing images of the 9/11 attacks with out-of-context comments Omar gave in a speech addressing xenophobia and Islamophobia. The president targeted Omar, alongside her fellow freshwomen congresswomen Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in July, telling them to “go back” to the “totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
Just this week, Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, an accused child molester, dusted off Trump’s racist rhetoric, telling Omar to “go back to Somalia,” according to the Washington Post.
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