Democrat congresswoman targeted by Trump sprayed with mystery substance
Washington: A Minnesota politician who has been heavily targeted by President Donald Trump was sprayed with a mysterious substance from a syringe during a public event in Minneapolis, where he called for the removal of immigration police.
A man who ran into Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was arrested after spraying her with an unknown, brown-colored liquid that a witness described as smelly. “Oh my God, he sprayed something on you,” said a woman in the audience. “It smells so bad.”
Omar rejected calls for emergency medical attention and returned to the microphone after the attacker was taken into custody. “We will continue,” he said. “These fucking bastards won’t get away with this.”
Police confirmed the man was booked into a local jail for third-degree assault, and forensic scientists attended the scene. After the event ended, Omar went to seek medical help and told reporters: “I feel fine.”
As Omar, a vocal critic of ICE and the Trump administration, called for the abolition of ICE and the firing of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the man rose from his seat near the podium, ran toward her, and attacked her.
Omar has been relentlessly targeted by Trump for her views and Somali background, as well as allegations of corruption and the debunked claim that she married his brother.
“Ilhan Omar is trash, she is trash,” Trump said last month. “Their friends are garbage… They complain and do nothing but bitch. We don’t want them in our country. They should go back where they came from and fix this.”
The incident in Minneapolis on Tuesday evening came as Trump’s hard-line homeland security adviser, Stephen Miller, surprisingly reversed his stance on the shooting of American citizen Alex Pretti, acknowledging that Border Patrol agents may have violated protocol.
In a statement to this imprint, Miller said the initial statements made by the Department of Homeland Security about Pretti’s shooting were based on reports from Customs and Border Protection personnel at the scene.
“The White House has given DHS clear direction that the extra personnel sent to Minnesota for force protection should be used to conduct fugitive operations to create a physical barrier between arrest teams and separatists,” Miller said. “We are evaluating why the CBP team did not follow this protocol.”
Miller, who was also the White House deputy chief of staff, wrote some of the strongest rhetoric against Pretti following his death, calling him a “would-be assassin” who was “trying to kill federal law enforcement.”
Pretti was carrying a gun, which is legal in Minnesota, and there was no evidence he attempted to use his gun. Footage of his death shows him being disarmed seconds before he was shot and killed.
Miller’s reversal, first reported by CNN, came after the White House refused to defend his rhetoric and Trump partially backtracked by calling Minnesota’s Democratic leaders, withdrawing a small number of ICE agents from the state and sending border czar Tom Homan to replace Border Force commander Greg Bovino.
During his visit to Iowa on Tuesday US time, Trump said he intended to “de-escalate” the situation in Minneapolis, where two Americans were killed by federal agents this month and protests against ICE continue.
Trump also angered the gun lobby by declaring once again that Pretti should not carry a firearm while observing and confronting Border Patrol agents.
“You can’t have guns, you can’t come in with guns,” Trump said. “You can’t do that. This is very unfortunate.”
Dudley Brown, president of the National Gun Rights Association, said Trump was “completely wrong.”
“While we agree that you cannot interfere with law enforcement, you certainly have the right to carry self-defense tools when protesting legally. In fact, this is exactly the kind of place where exercising that right is paramount,” he said.
“Unfortunately, this is not just a misrepresentation by the president; it reflects a broader problem with the messaging of other senior administration officials.”
The National Rifle Association also took issue with Trump’s remarks. “The NRA clearly believes that all law-abiding citizens have the right to keep and bear arms wherever they have the lawful right to be,” the statement said.
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political correspondent in Canberra.Connect with: X or email.
