Rep. Ilhan Omar: Death Threats Increased After Trump's Tweet

MINNEAPOLIS — Rep. Ilhan Omar says death threats against her have risen since President Donald Trump tweeted a video targeting her late last week. "Since the President’s tweet Friday evening, I have experienced an increase in direct threats on my life—many directly referencing or replying to the President’s video," Omar said in a statement Monday.

"I thank the Capitol Police, the FBI, the House Sergeant at Arms, and the Speaker of the House for their attention to these threats."

A video Trump shared Friday includes a comment Omar made in a speech at an event for a Muslim civil rights organization. The event took place after the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand.

Critics accused her of minimizing the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 in the speech. Others, including top Democrats in Congress, said the short snippet in Trump's tweet takes her out of context.

Omar's office provided the full remarks from her speech below:

“It doesn’t matter how good you are if you one day find yourself in a school where other religions are talked about, but when Islam is mentioned we are only talking about terrorists. And if you say something you are sent to the principal’s office. So to me I say raise hell. Make people uncomfortable. Because here’s the truth. Far too long we have lived with the danger of being a second class citizen and frankly, I’m tired of it. And every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it. CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties. So you can’t just say that today someone is looking at me strange that I am going to make myself look pleasant. You have to say this person is looking at me strange. I am not comfortable with it. I am going to go talk to them and ask them why. Because that is a right you have.”

The controversy around the speech began when Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw shared an 18-second clip of the speech on Twitter. Morning TV show Fox & Friends played the clip the next morning.

Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade said "You have to wonder if she’s an American first."

The next day, the New York Post used a photo from the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City to condemn Omar. The paper was widely criticized for the cover.

On Friday night, Trump posted a video that uses a snippet of Omar's speech — paired with footage of the terror attacks — on Twitter.

Omar's office says she now receives daily death threats; "almost all of them threatening to kill her because of her religion."