A Republican candidate hoping to unseat Rep. Ilhan Omar has been permanently banned from Twitter after writing several posts suggesting the Minnesota congresswoman be tried for treason and, if found guilty, hanged.
Danielle Stella, an ardent Trump supporter, echoed the unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that Omar shared classified intelligence with the Iranian government. In a Tuesday tweet, Stella wrote: “If it is proven @IlhanMN passed sensitive info to Iran, she should be tried for #treason and hanged.”
She also tweeted “a crude depiction of a stick figure hanging from gallows,” according to The Washington Times, which broke the story.
Both Stella’s primary account @2020MNCongress and her secondary account @StarDanielle have been suspended.
“My suspension for advocating for the enforcement of federal code proves Twitter will always side with and fight to protect terrorists, traitors, pedophiles and rapists,” Stella told the Times in a statement.
In a Friday Facebook post, Stella wrote that she “did not threaten anyone,” adding, “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.”
Twitter, meanwhile, issued a statement, saying, “The account was permanently suspended for repeated violations of the Twitter Rules.” Those rules include violence: “You may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people. We also prohibit the glorification of violence.”
Omar, who is one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, responded to Stella’s comments in a Friday tweet, drawing a line from “violent threats” to “violent acts.”
“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,” she wrote. “Violent rhetoric inevitably leads to violent threats, and ultimately, violent acts.”
Omar is a member of an informal group of progressive freshmen members of Congress that includes Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) who are called “The Squad.”