Cheering supporters welcome Rep. Ilhan Omar back to Minnesota

Rep. Ilhan Omar.
(Image credit: Kerem Yucel/AFP/Getty Images)

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) was greeted by throngs of cheering supporters when she arrived at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Thursday night.

It's been a rocky week for Omar, starting with President Trump telling her and three other Democratic women of color to "go back" to their home countries. On Wednesday night, Trump brought Omar up during a rally in North Carolina, and accused her of "launching vicious anti-Semitic screeds." The crowd started chanting, "Send her back!" and while Trump did not say anything during the rally, on Thursday he claimed he was "not happy" and tried to stop it.

Omar heard different cheers on Thursday night, as supporters welcomed her back. Before heading to a town hall, Omar — one of Trump's most vocal critics — told supporters she would "continue to be a nightmare to this president, because his policies are a nightmare to us. We are not deterred, we are not frightened, we are ready. We are in the ring. We are in the people's house, and we are going to continue to fight it until we have the America we know we all deserve."

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Linda Garrett-Johnson told The Star Tribune she came to the airport to show Omar that "Minnesota is standing with her." Garrett-Johnson said she was horrified by Trump's comments, adding that she "heard things like that growing up a person of color. I didn't ever think that I would ever live to hear it from the president of the United States."

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Catherine Garcia

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.