Danielle Stella & Ilhan Omar of Minnesota (Credit: Facebook)

Elham Asaad Buaras

The personal and campaign Twitter accounts of a Republican candidate vying to challenge Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota next year has been suspended after she suggested Omar should be tried for treason and hanged and added a photo of a stick figure hanging from the gallows.

Danielle Stella campaign twitter account said on November 26, “If it is proven @IlhanMN passed sensitive info to Iran, she should be tried for #treason and hanged.”

The tweet referred to unsupported stories that Omar was recruited as a “Qatari asset” who gave information to Qatar that was given to Iran, something she denied to The Jerusalem Post.

The office for the Congresswoman called the stories “outlandishly absurd.”
The accounts for Stella, who is running for Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District, which elected Omar in 2018, were permanently suspended for “repeated violations” of the platform’s rules, Twitter said in a statement on November 30.

Stella’s campaign website describes her as a “firm” supporter of President Donald Trump. She is one of at least five Republican candidates seeking the party’s nomination in an August primary. “My suspension for advocating for the enforcement of federal code proves Twitter will always side with and fight to protect terrorists, traitors, paedophiles and rapists,” said Stella.

Omar, who is one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress and is no stranger to threats, responded on Twitter. “This is the natural result of a political environment where anti-Muslim dog-whistles and dehumanisation are normalised by an entire political party and its media outlets,” she wrote. “Violent rhetoric inevitably leads to violent threats, and ultimately, violent acts.”

Stella is no stranger to controversy. The 31-year-old was arrested twice this year for allegedly stealing goods from a Target and a grocery store in Minneapolis.