Republican congressional candidate Danielle Stella accused liberals of hypocrisy after facing a swift backlash for commenting about hanging Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Democrat.
Ms. Stella, who is seeking the GOP nomination to run against Ms. Omar in 2020, said she has received death threats since recently stating that the congresswoman should be tried for treason and hanged if convicted.
Addressing the reaction Friday on Facebook, Ms. Stella condemned her critics for “sending heinous comments, actual death threats, threats of bodily harm, threats to my friends, supporters, threats to post private photos, insulting/attacking my religion, intelligence, race, gender, mental health, physical health, appearance, labeling me with many disorders and diagnoses, and using very non-PC language to do so.
“What you’re doing is reprehensible and speaks to your flawed souls and damaged psyches,” Ms. Stella continued. “The only death threats I’m seeing is from the angry liberal mob where facts don’t matter, only emotion, and you’re somehow thinking you’re righteous by threatening my life, my supporters’ lives, my loved ones lives? No, this is wrong. You are hypocrites.”
Ms. Stella made waves earlier this week after her campaign’s official Twitter account boosted a conspiracy theory about Ms. Omar, tweeting: “If it is proven @IlhanMN passed sensitive info to Iran, she should be tried for #treason and hanged.” That tweet was followed by another that linked to an article that aggregated her original remark that her account captioned by a crude drawing of a stick figure hanging from gallows.
Twitter permanently suspended Ms. Stella from the platform afterward due to repeated violations of its rules, a Twitter spokesperson told The Washington Times on Wednesday.
Ms. Stella has remained active on Facebook, however, where her public account has become a lightning rod for attacks in the wake of her remark about Ms. Omar, the first Somali refugee elected to the House of Representatives and one of the first two Muslim congresswomen. A cursory search conducted by The Washington Times identified myriad critical comments posted to her page by fellow Facebook users in the days since causing the controversy, including several directly or indirectly wishing for her death.
Ms. Omar is no stranger to death threats, meanwhile. She has been on the receiving end of several since taking office in January 2019, which she has previously attributed in part to President Trump attacking her on Twitter.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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