Ilhan Omar condemns Trump for spreading 'lies that put my life at risk'
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has accused Donald Trump of putting her life at risk after the president retweeted a post that falsely claimed she partied on the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
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Trump retweeted a post on Wednesday by the conservative actor and comedian Terrence K Williams, asserting that film footage of Omar dancing was taken on the 9/11 anniversary last week. Omar objected and said the video of her dancing to Lizzo’s hit Truth Hurts was in fact shot at a Congressional Black Caucus event in Washington on a different date.
Omar, a Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, posted on Twitter: “This is from a CBC event we hosted this weekend to celebrate black women in Congress. 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?”
Trump has made several racist attacks to demonize Omar, a Muslim, along with other members of what is known as “the Squad” – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, all women of color.
In his retweet of Williams’s original post, the president asserted: “Ilhan Omar, a member of AOC Plus 3, will win us the Great State of Minnesota. The new face of the Democrat Party!”
The Washington Post noted Williams has a history of spreading conspiracy theories, including one last month that suggested the death of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein might be linked to former president Bill Clinton. Trump retweeted that claim and defended Williams as “a very highly respected conservative pundit” with “half a million followers” on Twitter, the Post added.
The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual legislative conference took place between 11 and 15 September. Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), tweeted the video of Omar dancing at one of the CBC events on 13 September with the caption: “Can someone name something better than Ilhan Omar dancing to Lizzo? Because I can’t think of anything.”
The PCCC responded to Trump with a post that said: “Our co-founder Adam Green posted this video from a CBC event on Sept 13, and Ilhan Omar retweeted it. Today Donald Trump tweeted that she “partied on the anniversary of 9/11.” This is an abhorrent lie that endangers a member of Congress. Twitter must remove Trump’s tweet now.”
Political commentator Zerlina Maxwell wrote on Twitter: “The president just RT’d a lie. We all know this video of Ilhan is from this weekend because we saw them post it in real time.”
