Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) shared a post celebrating the violence against Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that occurred in 2017.
Omar, one of two Muslim members of Congress, was responding to Paul’s recent comments about her.
Paul on Friday, July 26, criticized Omar for comments she’s made disparaging America and Americans after the country accepted her as a refugee from Somalia.
“I’ve met people who have come here from behind the Iron Curtain. They got away from communism, they’re some of the best Americans we have, because they really appreciate how great our country is, and then I hear Representative Omar say America is a terrible place,” Paul told Breitbart.
“Well, she came here and we fed her, we clothed her, she got welfare, she got [schooling], she got healthcare, and then, lo and behold, she has the honor of actually winning a seat in Congress, and she says we’re a terrible country? I think that’s about as ungrateful as you can get.”
Paul then said he’d chip in for a plane ticket for Omar to go back to her country of birth.
“I think she can look and maybe learn a little bit about the disaster that is Somalia—that has no capitalism, has no God-given rights guaranteed in a constitution, and has about seven different tribes that have been fighting each other for the last 40 years,” he said.
“And then maybe after she’s visited Somalia for a while, she might come back and appreciate America more.”
Omar on Monday shared a post on Twitter from activist Mehdi Hasan, who works for the Intercept and Al Jazeera, alleging that Paul lied about Omar and claiming his father, former U.S. Representative Ron Paul, was a white nationalist.
1) Paul claims Omar called America a ‘terrible country’. She never said it. A lie.
2) Paul hails America’s refugee record, ignoring the Muslim ban.
2) Omar has visited Somalia more than Paul has – & knows far more about it.
3) Paul’s dad published a white nationalist news letter https://t.co/jnZocmV9Pu— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) July 28, 2019
Imagine being Rand Paul’s next door neighbor and having to deal with @RandPaul lying cowardly circular whiney bullcrap about lawn clippings. No wonder he ripped his toupee off.
— Tom Arnold (@TomArnold) July 29, 2019
She then shared a post from actor Tom Arnold celebrating the physical violence committed against Paul in 2017.
“Imagine being Rand Paul’s next-door neighbor and having to deal with @RandPaul lying cowardly circular whiney bullcrap about lawn clippings,” Arnold wrote in replying to Hasan’s accusations.
“No wonder he ripped his toupee off.”
Paul suffered multiple broken ribs after his neighbor tackled him from behind on Nov. 4, 2017. Rene Boucher, 59, was arrested and charged with assault.
Paul later said he had to undergo hernia surgery. A jury in January awarded Paul over $580,000 in damages.
“I bend over to pick up a stick, and just as I’m straightening up, something hits me so hard,” Paul said at a hearing. “I really thought if I got another blow to my back, I wasn’t going to survive. And so really I thought I could die at that point.”
Paul has alleged Boucher’s attack was prompted by politics while Boucher claimed that he was upset about Paul not cleaning his property properly. Boucher later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 days in prison.
Paul’s wife, Kelley Paul, said last year that the attack and push for violence and confrontations by some activists and officials led her to buy a gun and sleep with it.
“We’ve updated all of our security systems at home. I sleep with a loaded gun by my bed. I’m home alone a lot, obviously when Rand is [in Washington], and so I’ve got deadbolts all around my house so that if someone’s in my house when I go to bed I’m deadbolted in three different levels,” she said.
“It’s bizarre. I’ve never been like this in my whole life. … We used to never even lock our doors, and now that has all changed. Even going out to dinner in D.C., last night, you worry. You hope that people aren’t going to come up and just start screaming at you.”
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Sen. Rand Paul’s title. NTD regrets the error.
