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Omar, a Democrat and a refugee from Somalia, said during a Wednesday press conference that the threats she receives rise when Trump uses what she described as hateful rhetoric about her and the community she represents. She spoke one day after the Tuesday incident in Minneapolis, where a man accosted her at an event and squirted liquid on her, and Omar said she was not nervous about returning to public appearances.
Omar said, “Every time the president of the United States has chosen to use hateful rhetoric to talk about me and the community that I represent, my death threats skyrocket.” When asked if she was nervous about appearing in public, she added, “Fear and intimidation doesn’t work on me.”
The AP report said the attack occurred against the backdrop of escalating violence in Minneapolis tied to the White House’s immigration enforcement push. The same report said that two people had been fatally shot by federal agents during the White House’s aggressive immigration crackdown, and it described the political climate in which Omar was targeted at the event.
Omar’s comments came as the suspect in Tuesday’s attack appeared to have expressed support for Trump online. The report said that the man arrested for the spray incident had made pro-Trump posts on social media, and it cited posts in which he criticized former President Joe Biden and referred to Democrats as “angry and liars.”
Police said the suspect, Anthony Kazmierczak, 55, used a syringe to squirt liquid on Omar after she called for the abolishment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and for the firing or impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem following fatal shootings in Minneapolis. The report said officers tackled and arrested Kazmierczak immediately after the attack.
According to Minnesota court records cited by AP, Kazmierczak had a conviction for felony auto theft in 1989. The report said he had been arrested multiple times for driving under the influence and had numerous traffic citations, and it also described indications of significant financial problems, including two bankruptcy filings.
The AP report said photos of the syringe showed what appeared to be a light-brown liquid inside, but authorities had not publicly identified the substance. It also said Kazmierczak had not been formally charged or scheduled for an initial court appearance as of Wednesday afternoon, and it cited Daniel Borgertpoepping, spokesman for the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, saying investigators had not yet received results from the police investigation. The report said a statement from the Minneapolis Police Department indicated the FBI was leading the investigation.
The report further said it was unclear whether Kazmierczak had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. It cited the county’s chief public defender, Michael Berger, saying the case had not been assigned to his office. It also included additional details from Kazmierczak’s online posts, including a question about when descendants of slaves would pay restitution to Union soldiers’ families.
Omar has faced security concerns for years, the report said. After Trump’s early social-media attacks during her first year in Congress, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked Capitol Police to conduct a security review, and Omar later said six officers provided around-the-clock protection for her and her family.
The report said Omar played an audio recording of a death threat she received by phone during a 2021 press conference, and it said the caller used racist and anti-Muslim slurs in the recording. The report also said a man was sentenced to three years’ probation on federal hate crime charges for sending an email threatening to kill Omar, the following year.
The AP report said Omar told reporters Wednesday that she wouldn’t be paying for security and wouldn’t have the government focused on providing protection if Trump were not in office and if he were not, in her words, so “obsessed” with her. The report also said lawmakers face rising threats in recent years, citing figures from the U.S. Capitol Police and remarks from Rep. Greg Casar about threats that he said nearly all members of Congress receive.
In remarks to AP, Jayapal said she knows how Omar felt because, she said, an armed man showed up at her Seattle home in 2022 and threatened her and her husband. Jayapal said, “It has to stop,” and added that she described a pattern where elected leaders do not call it out despite what she said are the consequences. The report said the White House declined to comment, and it reported that Trump had baselessly accused Omar of staging the attack.