Name: Rep. Ilhan Omar attacked during Minneapolis town hall
Uploaded: 2026-01-28T17:17:32.000Z
Duration: 8 min 59 s
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Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar there attacked while speaking at a town hall event in Minneapolis Tuesday night.

In the video, seconds after Omar calls on DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to resign, a man approaches her, sprays an unknown liquid on her with a syringe.

Modal verbs - B1

Kristi Noem must resign or face impeachment.

CNN's Sarah Seidner was at that town hall.

Sarah, what did it look like from your perspective?

People couldn't figure out what happened.

He was towards the very front of all of the rows of people who had come to the town hall, which, by the way, she has monthly.

And as soon as he sort of jumped up and came towards her, it was interesting to note that as he went around the side, he had what looked like a syringe in his hand.

Some sort of liquid he sprayed out of it.

It smelled kind of like vinegar, a vinegary substance.

We still don't know exactly what was in that syringe.

An investigation we now know is underway.

But after he did that, Ilhan Omar herself, the congresswoman, went for him.

She cocked her arm back, and it looked like she was going to lunge toward him.

But before she had a chance to do that, her own security detail jumping on him, taking him to the ground, eventually wrestling his arms behind his back and taking him out of the vicinity so that he could be brought in by police.

I watched them talking to her, saying, we need you to stop.

And she stood in front of the crowd that was still there, who clapped for her as she continued talking about the situation here when it comes to immigration.

But, yeah, I mean, there was a lot of concern and there was fear among her staff about whether or not she was going to be okay.

Well, and then right after that, she spoke exclusively with you, Sarah.

Yeah, I just happened to pull my cell phone out after our photographer, Jerry Simonson, was focused on the person who was wrestled to the ground and being taken out.

And I asked her if simply if she was okay.

You know, I'm gonna 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, to allow these people to intimidate us, to make us not fight for our constituents and for the country we love.

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.

Her last words there as she went to the back where she eventually began getting checked by medical staff.

But, yeah, this was a moment that did freak everyone out in the room, considering that just like many other members of Congress, Ilhan Omar has gotten threats, she's gotten death threats.

But her staff tells me this is the first time that she's ever faced any kind of attack inside her own town halls, which she has regularly, like I said, once a month here.

And we are standing here in north Minneapolis where her constituents came to listen to what she had to say.

And she was very pointed about what she feels is going on in her own community and very clear that she wants ICE out, she wants Kristi Noem out, and

she wants ICE to leave this community because she says it is just breaking her community apart.

There were some Republicans who were quick to condemn the attack.

Mark Alford said while he disagrees with Omar, quote, these disagreements should never result in assault.

And Nancy Mace says she was deeply disturbed.

One Republican who did not seem worried about it, President Trump speaking to ABC News.

He suggested without evidence that the attack was somehow staged, saying, quote, I think she's a fraud.

Knowing her, the same president who just hours before had said this about Minneapolis.

And they met with the governor, the mayor, everybody else, and

Joining me now in the group, Chad Zakwolf, CNN senior politics writer Kristen Soltis Anderson, CNN political commentator and Republican pollster.

And Antoine C. Wright, Democratic strategist.

I don't know if you heard in your group chats or people in Democratic circles started talking about this last night.

America is not like this because Donald Trump is the president.

Donald Trump is the president because America is like this.

And believe it or not, there's some sick, deranged people out there who are celebrating online when members of Congress are attacked, when they're threatened.

Particularly visible figures like Ilhan Omar Alexander Ocasio Cortez and others.

And I think that we as Americans have to step back.

But I also think leaders starting at the presidency level should always condemn these type things because it cannot be good for them and not good for me.

When the president was under attack, Americans came together to condemn it.

And so the president has to tone down the rhetoric because we've seen January 6th is a direct result when his language goes out, people respond to it.

Yes, although I think the argument was the attack on him and Butler was.

Was the result of rhetoric against him, how people had talked about him.

Hold on, I want to play for you something because Trump has, you know, of course, dismissed the attack on Omar.

Villain, social media villain on the right.

And then I'm also going to take you back to 2019.

They have to show that they can love our country.

Omar has a history of launching vicious anti Semitic screens.

I feel like usually on a panel there's someone who says people love Trump for his punchy language.

And are people, I think, is the public starting maybe a bit too sour as they see attack after attack and these sort of incidents on lawmakers?

I mean, I think in some ways it's a numbness rather than a cheering for it or a souring on it.

This is just like the toxic soup in which we live now?

I'm glad that some Republicans came out and condemned it.

Just like, I thought it was reprehensible that the Internet fever swamps had cooked up, that there was some conspiracy theory when Donald Trump was shot in Butler.