Ilhan Omar returned to Minnesota after Trump's attacks and received a hero’s welcome

Rep. Ilhan Omar returned to Minnesota after a week of duelling with the president over a raft of 'racist' tweets he sent out aimed at her, and the welcome she got will warm your heart.

Omar arrived at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Thursday, where she was greeted by a crowd of 150 well-wishers before she held a town hall event later in the evening. In unison, they chanted:

Welcome home Ilhan!

Speaking to her supporters, Omar said:

The reality is everybody talks about how [Trump] is threatened because we criticise him.

But the reality is he is threatened because we are inspiring people to dream about a country that recognises our dignity and our humanity.

Later on, she shared the clip of her supporters to her Twitter account, along with the caption:

It’s good to be home

The hero's welcome comes after president Donald Trump sparked controversy last Sunday when he posted a message to Twitter telling Omar, and three other congresswomen of colour to 'go back' to where they came from.

The four congresswomen - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib - are all US citizens, and only Omar was born outside of the United States, coming to the US in the nineties as a refugee from Somalia.

On Wednesday, the comments were amplified at a Trump rally in North Carolina. During the event, crowds of thousands burst into chants of:

Send her back! Send her back!

At the rally, president Trump said:

Tonight I have a suggestion for the hate-filled extremists who are constantly trying to tear our country down. They never have anything good to say. That's why I say: 'Hey, if they don't like it, let them leave. Let them leave.

Referring to Ms Omar, he added:

She slandered the brave Americans who were trying to keep peace in Somalia. Omar minimised the September 11 attacks on our homeland saying some people did something

In response, Omar quoted the Maya Angelou poem 'I Rise', tweeting:

You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Since the rally, the president has attempted to distance himself from the chants after Republican leaders expressed concern about them. Speaking to reporters, the president said he was 'not happy' about the chants. At a White House press conference, he said:

I felt a little bit badly about it.

I would say that I was not happy with it. I disagreed with it.

He added:

But I didn't say that - they did. And I disagreed.

He also claimed that he tried to put a stop to the chants by starting to speak again "very quickly", however footage shows him waiting at least 13 seconds before he begins to speak again.

HT Huffington Post

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