Rep. Ilhan Omar Responds to Donald Trump’s Claim That She Staged Town Hall Attack

Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar is speaking out after President Donald Trump suggested that she “probably had herself sprayed” after she was attacked while hosting a town hall in Minneapolis on Tuesday, Jan. 27.

Speaking on CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday, Jan. 28, Omar, 43, said, “The difference between the president and I is that I was raised to be a decent human being and my faith teaches me to have compassion, and he lacks both of those things.”

Collins also pointed out that after Trump was wounded during an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July 2024, Omar had called the incident a “tragedy.”

During her interview, Omar went on to call the Trump administration “liars” for labeling Renee Nicole Good “a domestic terrorist,” after she was fatally shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on the morning of Jan. 7.

She added that the same had been said about Alex Pretti, after he was fatally shot by federal officers in Minneapolis on Jan. 24.

The congresswoman said that “fortunately” both the shootings had been captured on video to reveal the reality of the events.

“This is also somebody who was talking about me in his town hall in Iowa, and then seems to exhibit some sort of dementia when he says he doesn’t think about me,” Omar added in reference to Trump’s comments in the state on Tuesday, when pushed further for a response to his remarks about her having staged the attack.

“Maybe it is time for the 25th amendment to be invoked, because he certainly cannot remember what he said and has done an hour ago,” she added.

The White House didn’t immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for comment on Omar’s CNN interview.

Tuesday’s attack saw a man — later identified as 55-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak — spray an orange liquid at Omar out of a syringe as she spoke during a town hall.

It’s since been reported that the liquid in question was likely to be apple cider vinegar, per CNN and CBS News.

Prior to the attack, Omar had been speaking to constituents about the ongoing unrest in Minneapolis, as well as calling for the abolishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the resignation or impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Just after she mentioned Noem, Kazmierczak, who was seated in the front row, jumped up and approached her, spraying her shirt with the substance from the syringe, according to C-SPAN footage.

Several people cried out in concern, with one person alerting the crowd, “He sprayed something,” according to the video.

Speaking to ABC News’ Rachel Scott that evening, Trump said he hadn’t seen a video of the assault, before accusing the congresswoman, whom he’s been criticizing for years, of staging the whole thing herself.

“I don’t think about her. I think she’s a fraud,” Trump told the outlet. “She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.”

The attack on Omar came a day after Trump said the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Congress were “looking at” the congresswoman, and claimed she’d “left Somalia with NOTHING, and is now reportedly worth more than 44 Million Dollars.”

“Time will tell all,” he wrote in a Truth Social post on Monday, Jan. 26.

Omar then replied in an X post, “Sorry, Trump, your support is collapsing and you’re panicking.”

“Right on cue, you’re deflecting from your failures with lies and conspiracy theories about me,” she added. “Years of ‘investigations’ have found nothing. Get your goons out of Minnesota.”

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Speaking during a news conference in Minneapolis on Wednesday, Omar suggested that Trump’s rhetoric toward her and the Somani community might have contributed to Tuesday’s attack.

“What the facts have shown since I’ve gotten into elected office is that every time the president of the United States has chosen to use hateful rhetoric to talk about me and the community that I represent, my death threats skyrocket,” the politician said, per NBC News.

Omar also suggested that Trump is “obsessed” with her during the conference.

“Last night, the man that attacked me was specifically upset that Trump’s order to deport Somalis was not yielding enough deportations of Somalis. So he wanted to come get the person he thought was protecting the Somalis,” she said, per USA Today.

“Well, we are protected by the Constitution. Sorry to tell you the truth. We are protected by the Constitution,” she added, the outlet reported.

“I do believe that the facts of the situation are that I wouldn’t be where I am at today, having to pay for security, having the government to think about providing me security, if Donald Trump wasn’t in office,” Omar continued, according to NBC News.