Ilhan Omar Attacked at Minneapolis Town Hall, Sprayed With Mystery Substance

Congresswoman Ilhan Omar on Tuesday night was assaulted by a man at a town hall after he rushed at the podium from which she was speaking and sprayed her with an unknown substance. Despite her staff’s insistence that she leave the venue to seek medical treatment, Ms. Omar finished the event, saying that ending the town hall would be a capitulation to “f—king assholes.”Ms. Omar represents the city of Minneapolis, which has dominated headlines in the last month after the shooting deaths of two individuals — Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The congresswoman decided to host the town hall on Tuesday in order to answer questions about President Trump’s mass deportation operation, and how her constituents can defend themselves. Five minutes into her remarks, Ms. Omar declared that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ought to either resign or face impeachment in the House. Immediately after she made that statement, a man rushed toward her. He yelled that Ms. Omar was a “disgrace to Minnesota” as he sprayed her with an unknown white liquid substance. One of the congresswoman’s bodyguards immediately tackled the man and took him to the ground. As he did so, Ms. Omar walked toward the man with her fist raised, seemingly prepared to hit him, though she quickly walked back toward the podium. “F—king asshole,” Ms. Omar said as she approached the microphone. When someone in the crowd asked what had been sprayed at her, she responded: “I don’t know.” She then calmly asked for a napkin to wipe the substance from her shirt. When another one of her bodyguards came toward Ms. Omar and told her to leave the venue, she insisted that she would stay. “We’ll continue. We’ll continue,” she told her bodyguard. “No, we will continue,” she said as he tried to get her to leave. A Minneapolis city council member, LaTrisha Vetaw, then approached Ms. Omar and said that she needed to leave to get medical attention. The congresswoman declined, saying that, “We will continue. These f—king assholes are not gonna get away with it.”“I am good,” Ms. Omar told her bodyguard, as Ms. Vetaw told her that whatever had been sprayed on her “smelled so bad.”“She needs to go get checked,” Ms. Vetaw told Ms. Omar’s bodyguard. “That’s what they want,” the congresswoman responded. “We’re gonna keep talking,” Ms. Omar then told the crowd, eliciting applause from her constituents. The Minneapolis Police Department tells the New York Sun that the man is being held in jail as the investigation continues. “Minneapolis Police Officers working at a planned event observed a man use a syringe to spray an unknown liquid onto U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar. The man was immediately arrested by MPD officers and booked into Hennepin County Jail for third degree assault,” the MPD said in a statement to the Sun. The charge is a felony and carries a maximum prison sentence of five years. “Representative Omar was uninjured and resumed speaking at the event. Minneapolis Forensic Scientists responded to process the scene,” the department added. Ms. Omar’s office did not immediately respond to a request for additional information about the attack. Ms. Omar ended up talking for an additional 30 minutes, answering questions about immigration and law enforcement, and how her constituents can protect themselves.

Ilhan Omar Attacked at Minneapolis Town Hall, Sprayed With Mystery Substance

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