Ilhan Omar Plays Voicemail of Vile Death Threat She Received After Boebert Video

Sipa USA via AP

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) played a nasty, racist, threatening voicemail she received after a viral video showed Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) suggesting Omar, a Muslim, was a terrorist.

“When a sitting member of Congress calls a colleague a member of the ‘Jihad Squad’ and falsifies a story to suggest I will blow up the Capitol, it is not just an attack on me but on millions of American Muslims across the country,” Omar said at a press conference Tuesday.

She then played the voicemail she received recently:

“We see you, Muslim sand n***** bitch,” the message began. “We know what you’re up to. You’re all about taking over our country. Don’t worry, there’s plenty that will love the opportunity to take you off the face of this fucking earth. Come get it, you fucking Muslim piece of shit. You jihadist. We know what you are. You’re a fucking traitor. You will not live much longer, bitch, I can almost guarantee you that. We the people are rising up, and you will be tried before a military tribunal, and you will be found guilty.”

The voicemail, the congresswoman said, is just one example of the threats and harassment she endures when her Republican colleagues engage in “anti-Muslim hate.” It came just hours after Omar and Boebert spoke on the phone and the congresswoman refused to publicly apologize to her. Instead, Boebert vaguely apologized last week “to anyone in the Muslim community I offended” when she told an outlandish story about riding in an elevator with Omar. Boebert has claimed at least twice now that she and a staff member were on an elevator with Omar in the Capitol. According to her story, Boebert said she wasn’t worried for her safety because Omar didn’t have a backpack, suggesting the Somali-American congresswoman who wears a hijab might detonate a bomb on Capitol Hill. In one of the videos, Boebert also described Omar as as “black-hearted” and “evil.”

Omar said through a spokesperson said the story was “a fabrication.” At the press conference, she encouraged Republican leadership to “hold those who perpetuate it accountable.” “We cannot pretend this hate speech from leading politicians doesn’t have real consequences,” Omar said. So far Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the Republican minority leader in the House, has declined to condemn Boebert’s remarks and has not taken any action against her.

Democratic leadership has been dragging their feet on the issue, with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) saying on Tuesday that they are “considering what action ought to be taken.”