She’s been called a radical by her opponents – called illegal by President Trump. And in Trump’s final year in Office in 2020, 73-year-old Frank Anthony Puzzuto actually threatened Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
In addition to Omar, Puzzuto threatened Representative Eric Swalwell and Representative Adam Schiff. He left a message to Swalwell on Jan 25, 2020, saying “Hello Mr. Swalwell, I’m coming to kill you.” His message to Schiff said “Hola, I am a worker for MS-13. We’re coming for Adam Schiff tonight. We’re gonna cut his head off.” MS-13 in an international criminal gang.
Puzzuto’s third but not so charming message was to Omar on Feb. 3, 2020. He called her office, and when the receiver picked up, he said “tell her I’m going to kill her today.”
“The use of violent rhetoric in political speech is incitement and is definitely creating an environment where members of Congress are receiving constant death threats,” Omar wrote on her instagram. “Enough!”
By March, 2020, U.S. District Judge, William F. Jung, heard enough and sentenced the 73-year-old Floridian to 15 months in prison.
This isn’t the first time that Omar has been derided by her adversaries. Late last year, on Nov. 30, Omar was interviewed at Capitol Hill, alongside Representatives Rashida Tlaib, Ande Carson, and Jamaal Bowman. And Omar played a voicemail recording of a death threat she had received.
Months prior to the threat Representative Boebert was recorded in a video deriding Omar in front of an amused crowd. Boebert described an elevator incident with Omar in which Boeber said “she doesn’t have a backpack – we should be fine.” Boeber continued to say that “the jihad squad decided to show up to work today.”
Boebert eventually called Omar. And she wrote an apoplectic tweet. “I apologize to anyone in the Muslim community that I offended with my comment about Rep. Omar,” she tweeted. “I have reached out to her office to speak with her directly.”
However, her “direct call” to Omar and its implications don’t exactly match Omar’s version of the story. “I graciously accepted a call from Rep. Lauren Boebert in the hopes of receiving a direct apology for falsely claiming she met me in an elevator,” Omar says. But “instead of apologizing for her Islamophobic comments and fabricated lies, Rep. Boebert refused to publicly acknowledge her hurtful and dangerous comments”.
Omar didn’t stop there. “Facts, this buffoon looks down when she sees me at the Capitol,” she tweeted. “This story is made up. Sad she thinks bigotry gets her clout.”
More than the issue of this Boebert’s mockery is the issue of the constant targets against Omar and the Muslims. To that Omar says “anti-Muslim bigotry isn’t funny and shouldn’t be normalized. Congress can’t be a place where hateful and dangerous Muslim tropes get no condemnation.”
Perhaps this latest verdict may shed some light on the seriousness of mockery and threats, as Boebert is made to offer a public apology and Pezzuto to wear an orange jumpsuit for the next 15 months.