Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar was attacked during a town hall Tuesday night in Minneapolis.
The Democrat was speaking behind a podium, condemning Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in her district, when a man abruptly got up out of his seat near the front of the audience and rushed up toward her.
The man could be seen spraying her with an unknown liquid and yelling at her. What he said wasn’t immediately clear.
The man was soon bearhugged, taken to the ground, and removed from the room. While the man was being restrained, Omar moved quickly to confront him, but did not touch him.
Seconds later, other town hall speakers near Omar commented on the harsh smell of the unknown liquid.
“You need to go get checked,” one woman told Omar. “You don’t know what he [sprayed]... Whatever it is smelled so bad.”
Omar refused.
“We will continue. These f---ing a------s are not going to get away with this,” she insisted.
Approaching the microphone again, Omar, 43, told the audience she would continue her remarks, while negotiating with a member of her security detail who wanted her to leave.
“We are Minnesota strong,” she said, “and we will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw at us.”
CNN’s Sara Sidner, who was in the room, said on AC360 that the substance used against Omar smelled “very strong” and “a bit like vinegar.”
When Sidner asked Omar if she was okay, Omar responded, “You know, I‘m going to go figure if I am, but I feel okay. I feel that it is important for people, whether they are in elected office or not, not to allow these people to intimidate us, to make us not fight for our constituents and for the country we love.”
Omar added: “And as I said, you know, I‘ve survived war, and I‘m definitely going to survive intimidation and whatever these people think they can throw at me because I‘m built that way.”
Omar made that point on X as well.
The Daily Beast has also reached out to Omar’s office for comment.
Omar’s attacker has been charged with third degree assault, the Minneapolis Police Department told the Daily Beast.
Omar has long been a top political target of Donald Trump, who attacked her and her native Somalia again earlier Tuesday night when talking about immigration during a speech in Iowa.
“We’re letting some great people come in. They have to show that they can love our country. They have to be proud—not like Ilhan Omar," Trump, 79, said. “She comes from a country that’s disaster. It’s probably, it’s considered the worst—it’s not even a country, okay? It barely has a government. I don’t think it does. They’re good at one thing: pirates."
Trump has also repeatedly demanded that Omar to be jailed or deported.
