Ilhan Omar, one of the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress, is facing calls for her US citizenship to be revoked amid a controversy over comments she made and a video she shared about conservative commentator Charlie Kirk after his assassination.
Ms Omar, a Somalia-born Democrat from Minnesota, drew the ire of Republicans after she reposted a video that said Mr Kirk had “denied the genocide happening in Palestine” and had been “spewing racist dog whistles”.
She also sat for an interview with broadcaster Mehdi Hasan, in which she said she was mortified by Mr Kirk's murder and expressed empathy for his children, but criticised his views of gun ownership and race relations after George Floyd's 2020 death in Minneapolis.
In the same interview, Ms Omar accused Republicans of double standards for saying the left is responsible for the sentiment that fuels political violence while ignoring their own role, and that of President Donald Trump who “has incited violence against people like me".
Republican Nancy Mace appears to have been particularly incensed by Ms Omar's interview and her reposting of the video. She filed a resolution in Congress to have her censured and removed from two House committees. The motion was set aside by the slimmest of margins on Wednesday, 214-213, when four Republicans voted with Democrats to shelve it.
Ms Mace, whose office on Capitol Hill is next to Ms Omar's, has also called for the revocation of her US citizenship, which she attained in 2000 after fleeing her homeland's civil war in 1991.
“We would love to see you deported back to Somalia next,” Ms Mace wrote. Many other users on X also called for her US naturalisation to be revoked.
In 2019, Ms Omar became one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, along with Rashida Tlaib. She has repeatedly been the subject of threats and racist abuse.
In 2023, she was stripped of her seat on the foreign affairs committee over previous anti-Semitic and anti-Israel speech.
Late on Thursday, President Donald Trump joined the chorus of criticism, repeating a debunked claim that Ms Omar had married her brother in order to gain citizenship.
"What SCUM we have in our Country, telling us what to do," he said on social media in a post attacking Somalia's governance.
Ms Omar's office did not immediately return a request for comment after normal business hours.
Since Mr Kirk's murder, the Trump administration has turned its attention to progressive groups and has discussed designating some as domestic terrorists. The moves have alarmed civil liberties groups and free-speech advocates who see conservatives ushering in a new era of “cancel culture”.
The White House is also threatening to launch investigations that could lead to the revocation of progressive groups' tax-exempt statuses, and the State Department has begun revoking visas of foreigners who made light of Mr Kirk's death.
On Wednesday, US television network ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show indefinitely after comments he made about Mr Kirk’s killing.
Republican Representative Chip Roy has set up a select committee to conduct a “full-scale investigation of the co-ordinated network of leftists attacking us".
Ms Omar responded to Ms Mace's criticism by saying she “needs to get help”. She also said Ms Mace is pushing false claims to raise money “and boost her run for Governor” in her home state of South Carolina next year.
