Monday, 23rd December 2024

White house denies Trump inciting violence against Ilhan Omar

The top Democrat in the US Congress ordered a safety review for a Muslim lawmaker and her family Sunday after accusing President Donald Trump of putting her in danger by tweeting a video of her spliced with footage of the 9/11 attacks

Monday, 15th April 2019

The top Democrat in the US Congress ordered a safety review for a Muslim lawmaker and her family Sunday after accusing President Donald Trump of putting her in danger by tweeting a video of her spliced with footage of the 9/11 attacks.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took time out from an official trip to issue a strong statement urging Trump to remove the clip featuring Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

"Following the president's tweet, I spoke with the sergeant-at-arms to ensure that Capitol Police are conducting a security assessment to safeguard Congresswoman Omar, her family, and her staff," she said.

"The president's words weigh a ton, and his hateful and inflammatory rhetoric creates real danger. President Trump must take down his disrespectful and dangerous video."

Meanwhile, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Sunday President Donald Trump did not wish any harm in his Twitter post criticizing Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s.

“Certainly the president is wishing no ill will, certainly not violence towards anyone,” Sanders told ABC News’ “This Week” show. “But the president is absolutely and should be calling out the congresswoman for her, not only one-time but the history of anti-Semitic comments,” she said.

Lawmakers from Trump’s Republican Party have accused Omar of minimizing the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked plane attacks by al Qaeda on the United States that killed almost 3,000 people, while critics of the president say he took Omar’s words out of context in order to stoke anti-Muslim sentiment.

On Saturday, Trump tweeted a video suggesting that Omar, a U.S. representative from Minnesota, had been dismissive of the 9/11 attacks that destroyed New York’s World Trade Center and struck the Pentagon outside Washington. The video spliced news footage of 9/11 with a clip from a speech Omar gave last month in which she described the attack as “some people did something.”

Several prominent Democrats, including presidential candidates Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, condemned Trump’s tweet, saying he was inciting racism and violence toward Omar with the video. Omar has said she has been the target of islamophobic death threats.