President Donald Trump tweeted out an altered video of a speech by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota), which juxtaposed words, taken out of context, against the backdrop of images of the worst terrorist attack on American soil.
The video cuts short part of Omar’s speech given last month before the Council on American–Islamic Relations.
“For far too long we have lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen and, frankly, I’m tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it. CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.,” Omar said in her original remarks, referencing Muslims who had been attacked or harassed in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Yet the video shared by Trump truncated her words, to simply, “some people did something,” referencing the attacks themselves.
After her edited words are spoken on the video, images of the two planes crashing into the World Trade Center are displayed. The towers being on fire and eventually collapsing are also shown, with her words being repeated several times in the video. Trump captioned his video with the words, in all capital letters, “WE WILL NEVER FORGET.”
WE WILL NEVER FORGET! pic.twitter.com/VxrGFRFeJM
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2019
While some on the right have lambasted Omar’s words, they have done so without the full context of her complete quote. With the president joining them, others on social media (including Democratic lawmakers, candidates for president hoping to run against Trump in 2020, and progressive pundits) have spoken out against the propaganda being spread by Trump online.
Many of the comments outright condemned Trump’s decision to attack Omar.
After 9/11 we all said we were changed. That we were stronger and more united. That’s what “never forget” was about. Now, a president uses that dark day to incite his base against a member of Congress, as if for sport. As if we learned nothing that day about the workings of hate.
— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) April 13, 2019
Our nation needs a President, who instead of posting a video attacking @IlhanMN & stoking division, speaks about how the evil terrorists killed Americans of every race, class, and creed on 9/11. We desperately need a President who can speak again to our nation’s common purpose.
— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) April 13, 2019
Ilhan Omar is a leader with strength and courage. She won't back down to Trump's racism and hate, and neither will we. The disgusting and dangerous attacks against her must end.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 13, 2019
Others pointed out that Trump’s rhetoric and sharing of the video was a real threat to Omar’s life.
Members of Congress have a duty to respond to the President’s explicit attack today.@IlhanMN’s life is in danger. For our colleagues to be silent is to be complicit in the outright, dangerous targeting of a member of Congress.
We must speak out.
“First they came…” pic.twitter.com/ygOX1vhE9j
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 12, 2019
President Trump's inflammatory and dangerous rhetoric towards Ilhan Omar is jeopardizing her safety. He is deliberately putting her and all Muslim Americans in harm's way.
— Jay Inslee (@JayInslee) April 13, 2019
Enough is enough. No more silence, with NY Post and now Trump taking Ilhan’s words out of context to incite violence toward her, it’s time for more Dems to speak up. Clearly the GOP is fine with this shameful stunt, but we cannot stand by.
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) April 12, 2019
The President is actively and willfully endangering the life of a member of Congress.
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) April 12, 2019
@realDonaldTrump tweets this almost a week after a man in New York was arrested for death threats against @IlhanMN.
Trump is actively endangering the life of a sitting Congressmember. https://t.co/ui0dHsUqbF
— Eva Putzova (@EvaPutzova) April 12, 2019
The President is inciting violence against a sitting Congresswoman—and an entire group of Americans based on their religion. It's disgusting. It's shameful. And any elected leader who refuses to condemn it shares responsibility for it.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 13, 2019
Still others pointed out that Trump himself made insensitive remarks immediately after the attacks of 9/11, bragging about how he owned the tallest building in New York City after the towers fell.
Meanwhile, Trump was bragging that his building was now the tallest in lower Manhattan.pic.twitter.com/LeW7acaNjR
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) April 12, 2019
Trump has since pinned his tweet featuring Omar to the top of his list of tweets on his profile. As of this press time, it has more than 60,000 retweets and 51,000 comments.