By Mona Austin
Pres. Trump re-tweeted a video of Rep. Ihan Omar that suggests she was nonchalant about 911, effectively making her a target of death threats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has asked him to remove it. It was taken down, but nor before being share over 86,000 times. "The president's words weigh a ton and his hateful and inflammatory rhetoric creates real danger," she said in a statement.
Since Friday when the video of the Twin Towers falling on 911 with clips of the Minnesota Democrat speaking at a Muslim empowerment event about the Council on American Islamic Relations was posted, Omar said death threats have increased. One of the first of two Muslim's in Congress, she accuse the POTUS encouraging Islamaphobia and right-wing extremist violence saying, "This is endangering lives. It has to stop." Pelosi said Sunday she is requesting additional security at the Capitol for Omar.
Previously Omar was scrutinized over comments about U.S. loyalty to Israel that were perceived as anti-Semitic. Conservatives went off and many Democrats have been silent on the matter.
Fellow freshman lawmaker Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, “@IlhanMN’s life is in danger. For our colleagues to be silent is to be complicit in the outright, dangerous targeting of a member of Congress.”
“Omar is being targeted for criticism, not for violence,” wrote Conservative columnist John Sexton. “The conflation of the two is a transparent attempt to silence criticism.”
Press Sec. Sara Huckabee Sanders defended the president on FOX News Sunday asking, "Why is she brushing this off dismissively? She continues to make anti-Semitic comments over and over again and Democrats refuse to call her out for it." Sanders said will continue to "If she continues to do it, the president will continue to call her out — call her out by name. And he's not going to be ashamed, nor should he be."
Still Sanders says Trump does not wish ill will upon the 34-year-old representative.
Omar's supporters believe her statements have been taken out of context.