Man Arrested for Threatening to Kill Ilhan Omar, Calling Her a 'Terrorist'

A New York man was arrested on Friday after he allegedly rang up Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s Washington, D.C. office, called her a terrorist, and threatened to kill her. I can’t imagine what might have spurred him to do such a thing?

According to the New York Post, the man in question is one 55-year-old Patrick Carlineo, Jr., a resident of the village of Addison in upstate New York. On March 21, Carlineo allegedly calling Omar’s D.C. office and spoke to a staffer, making the following threats, per a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office (emphasis mine):

During the call, an individual, eventually identified as the defendant, stated to the staff member, “Do you work for the Muslim Brotherhood? Why are you working for her, she’s a (expletive) terrorist. I’ll put a bullet in her (expletive) skull.”

The Post says Carlineo helpfully provided the staffer with his name and contact information, which Omar’s office then handed off to US Capitol Police and the FBI. Carlineo, who reportedly told FBI agents that “if our forefathers were still alive, they’d put a bullet in her head,” was arrested on Friday and charged with threatening to assault and murder a United States official. He is currently being held until he’s back in court on April 10.

Omar is the first Muslim woman in Congress, an achievement that has made her one of Fox News’s favorite targets. She has also been repeatedly attacked by Republican and Democratic lawmakers intent on dangerously misrepresenting her criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic, and even her efforts to call out Islamophobia get turned against her, so it’s completely unsurprising, if very distressing, that unhinged white men are calling in death threats to her office.

This isn’t even the first high profile threat she’s received—in March, the FBI opened an investigation into graffiti in a men’s bathroom in Minnesota that read, “Assassinate Ilhan Omar.”

Despite all this, Omar continues to speak truth to power, but Fox News and its ilk are opening a real Pandora’s box if they continue to sic their viewers on her. Which, let’s face it, they absolutely will.