Trump Shares Fake Video of Ilhan Omar

The president retweets video of her dancing, but it wasn't on the 9/11 anniversary
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 18, 2019 8:00 PM CDT
Trump Promotes Fake Video of Ilhan Omar
House Committee on Homeland Security member Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., speaks during a hearing on "meeting the challenge of white nationalist terrorism at home and abroad" on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019.   (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

President Donald Trump on Wednesday used Twitter to share an edited video made by a conservative comedian that falsely accused Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of dancing and partying last week on the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the AP reports. The inaccurate video provoked new Twitter criticism of the Muslim congresswoman from Minnesota, who has regularly faced accusations from her critics that she is unpatriotic. Omar's supporters, meanwhile, rallied around her. Some called for Twitter to scrub the misleading content from its site, fearing the video could lead to attacks against the congresswoman. (The video is in fact no longer available.)

"The President of the United States is continuing to spread lies that put my life at risk," Omar wrote on Twitter. "What is Twitter doing to combat this misinformation?" After the video emerged on Twitter, social media users quickly pointed out that the video had been taken on Friday, two days after the anniversary, while Omar was attending events related to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Legislative Conference in Washington. In the video retweeted by Trump, comedian Terrence K. Williams showed the clip of Omar dancing and added: "I need to talk to Omar. Girl, what in the world were you celebrating on the anniversary of 9/11?" When Trump shared the video with his 64 million Twitter followers, he tweeted, in part, "The new face of the Democrat Party!"

(More Twitter stories.)

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