Ilhan Omar’s Republican Challenger Banned By Twitter After Comments Threatening Her Safety

Danielle Stella, a Republican candidate challenging Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, has had her Twitter account permanently suspended for repeated violations of Twitter rules, reports CNN.

Stella, one of the five Republican candidates vying for Minnesota's fifth congressional seat in 2020, was banned from the platform on Thursday after suggesting the freshman Democrat "should be tried for treason and hanged" if unproven allegations against her were true. Stella sent two tweets appearing to reference claims — that are completely unverified, and only presented by one man in Florida — that Omar is using her position of power to funnel information to Iran and Qatar, Newsweek reports. 

On Friday, Omar responded on Twitter, saying "violent rhetoric" leads to "violent threats."

"This is the natural result of a political environment where anti-Muslim dogwhistles and dehumanization are normalized by an entire political party and its media outlets," Omar said. "Violent rhetoric inevitably leads to violent threats, and ultimately, violent acts."

Following the ban, Stella posted a lengthy Facebook post in which she defended the language used in her Twitter posts.

She wrote, “I did not threaten anyone. If you are calling it a threat- you believe that individual is guilty, and therefore it is not a threat, it's treason. You and the fake news #MSM are lying by calling it Iynch ing [sic] or terroristic threats.”

Omar, the first Somali-American elected to Congress, has been in the crosshairs of the Republican party since her election, with President Donald Trump attacking her on Twitter, accusing the refugee of being ungrateful and making anti-U.S. remarks. The tweet followed Trump's decision to post video footage of the September 11 terror attacks intercut with a comment Omar made in a March speech.

Omar came to the US more than two decades ago as a refugee and became an American citizen in 2000 at the age of 17.