Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Somali-American and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, has become a center of national controversy over comments that have been condemned as anti-Semitic. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP File Photo Congress Pelosi: Capitol Police working to ‘safeguard’ Omar after Trump 9/11 tweet Ilhan Omar says she has ‘experienced an increase in direct threats on my life.’

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday that the U.S. Capitol Police and the House sergeant-at-arms “are conducting a security assessment to safeguard Congresswoman [Ilhan] Omar, her family and her staff” after a tweet by President Donald Trump.

Trump on Friday shared an edited video of Omar superimposed over images of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “We will never forget,” the president wrote on Twitter. Trump’s tweet followed remarks by the Minnesota Democrat that seemed to play down the attack. Republicans and conservatives commentators lashed out at Omar over the incident.


Pelosi’s announcement highlighted what has become an extraordinary situation — the speaker of the House is worried about the safety of one of her members after a statement by the president of the United States.

In a statement Sunday night, Omar said, “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. I thank the Capitol Police, the FBI, the House Sergeant-at-Arms, and the speaker of the House for their attention to these threats."

Omara added: “Violent rhetoric and all forms of hate speech have no place in our society, much less from our country’s Commander in Chief."

“We are all Americans. This is endangering lives. It has to stop.”

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A New York man who supports Trump was arrested two weeks after threatening to shoot Omar. And last month, a bomb threat was called in to a Los Angeles building where Omar was scheduled to make a speech. That address went ahead as planned.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that Trump “is wishing no ill will and certainly not violence towards anyone, but the president is absolutely and should be calling out the congresswoman for her not only one time but history of anti-Semitic comments.”

During the past decade, two members of Congress — Democrat Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and Republican Steve Scalise of Louisiana — have been seriously wounded in shootings. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) received death threats from a Venezuelan lawmaker in 2017, and security was stepped up around him.

Omar, a Somali-American and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, has become a center of national controversy over comments that have been condemned as anti-Semitic. The House has twice passed resolutions rejecting anti-Semitism and hate speech more broadly after comments she has made.

This latest incident began on March 24 when Omar gave a speech to the Muslim Civil Rights Organization, a week after the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand. An alleged white supremacist killed 50 Muslims in a mosque in that mass shooting.

During her speech, Omar said: “For 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. [The Council on American-Islamic Relations] 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.”

Three weeks later, on April 9, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), a Navy SEAL who lost his right eye during an explosion while deployed in Afghanistan, criticized Omar’s comments, a move that set off a firestorm on the right — especially on Fox News — and eventually led to Trump’s intervention.

“First Member of Congress to ever describe terrorists who killed thousands of Americans on 9/11 as ‘some people who did something,’” Crenshaw said in a tweet. “Unbelievable.”

Omar and her defenders, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), immediately shot back, saying that comments like Crenshaw’s — and, later, the president’s tweet — were endangering the Minnesota Democrat, who has faced a litany of death threats since coming to Congress.

“We are getting to the level where this is an incitement of violence against progressive women of color,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters on Thursday.

But Crenshaw didn’t back down, issuing another defiant response on Friday, hours after Trump’s tweet prompted further outcry from Democrats.

“When someone calls out a public official for things they said, it is not endangering their life or inciting violence,” Crenshaw tweeted Friday night. “Claiming otherwise is just an attempt to silence your critics.”

Not all Democratic criticism was directed across the aisle, however. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), another high-profile freshman and an ally of Omar and Ocasio-Cortez, directed her complaints at Democratic leadership.

“They put us in photos when they want to show our party is diverse,” Tlaib said Saturday , responding to a tweet about how top Democrats hadn’t done enough to defend Omar.

“However, when we ask to be at the table, or speak up about issues that impact who we are, what we fight for & why we ran in the first place, we are ignored. To truly honor our diversity is to never silence us.”

Pelosi, who is traveling overseas, had largely avoided wading into the latest controversy surrounding Omar until her statement Sunday.

Asked by reporters Friday at Democrats’ annual retreat to weigh in, the speaker deferred, saying she hadn’t been able to talk to Omar yet because the freshman Democrat was “in transit.”

“As is my custom with my colleagues, I call them in before I call them out, so I look forward to hearing from her,” Pelosi said. “I’ll have some comment when I do speak to her.”