US Senator Ilhan Omar Decries Hate After Death Threat

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., on Wednesday denounced hate and publicized an anonymous death threat that she received in which the writer claimed that "a very capable person with a very big 'Gun' " would shoot her at the Minnesota State Fair.

The freshman lawmaker called attention to the threat hours after Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore urged her to "go back to Somalia." The Alabama Republican Party has called for her expulsion from the House.

"I hate that we live in a world where you have to be protected from fellow humans. I hated it as a child living through war and I hate it now," Omar said in a tweet. "But until deranged people like this stop threatening my life and the lives of others, I have to accept the reality of having security."

The congresswoman was responding to a photo taken by a Pacific Standard columnist that showed her speaking at a podium at an event in Minnesota with a bodyguard standing directly behind her.

In her tweet, Omar shared an image of the death threat she said she had received. The writer states that "you will not being going back to Washington, your life will end before your 'Vacation' ends." The letter also claims that the congresswoman "won't die alone" and that "a very capable person with a very big 'Gun' " will target her at the Minnesota State Fair.

"They say we can't get the Somali Stink out of the clean Minnesota air, but we're going to enjoy the adventure," the letter reads.

An Omar spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on when and how the threat was received.

Omar is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Somalia. She has been the subject of frequent attacks by Republicans, including a racist tweet last month in which President Trump said that she and three other congresswomen should "go back" to the "totally broken and crime infested places from which they came."

Earlier Wednesday, Moore echoed Trump's remark. "President Trump was right, she should go back to Somalia from whence she came," he tweeted.

Moore is pursuing a 2020 bid against Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala. He lost his 2017 race against Jones after more than half a dozen women came forward with decades-old sexual misconduct allegations against him, detailing inappropriate interactions that allegedly occurred when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. Moore has denied the allegations.

Omar also on Tuesday hit back at the Alabama Republican Party after it approved a resolution calling for her expulsion from the House of Representatives that cited the freshman lawmaker's controversial comments on Israel and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

In a fiery tweet Tuesday evening, Omar wrote that she was "elected with 78% of the vote by the people of Minnesota's 5th District, not the Alabama Republican Party."

"Sorry, @ALGOPHQ, but this is a representative democracy," she tweeted, tagging the state GOP's Twitter account, before skewering the group's support of 2017 Senate candidate Roy Moore, whom she labeled "an accused child molester."

The resolution, which urges the state's elected congressional delegation to launch the expulsion process for Omar, was passed over the weekend during a summer meeting in Auburn, Ala., AL.com reported. It is unlikely to result in Omar losing her seat: According to the Constitution, it would require approval from at least two-thirds of the House, which is controlled by Democrats.