Member of the U.S. House of Representatives Ilhan Omar stood at a podium in the Urban League Twin Cities facility in Minneapolis calling for justice and accountability in the city after the killing of two people by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), demanding the resignation of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
As she was speaking at the January 27 town hall, a man approached Omar with a syringe in his hand. Footage of the incident, including that shared live on Omar’s Facebook page, shows the man shout at Omar, “She’s not resigning. You’re tearing Minnesota apart.”
Spraying a substance from the syringe at the congresswoman, Omar moved toward the man, who was then quickly tackled by others at the scene.
Omar was unharmed and as a member of her team attempted to move her offstage, she said “we’re not going to let that f*cking a*shole win” and continued her talk. The substance was reported to have a strong odor and was later identified by police forensic analysis as apple cider vinegar.
The alleged assailant, a 55-year-old Minneapolis man, Andrew James Kazmierczak, was taken into custody immediately after.
Online History of Trump Support and Racism
Kazmierczak is facing federal charges related to the assault or intimidation of federal officers and staff.
After the release of Kazmierczak’s name, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism located and reviewed his public social media history on the platforms X and Facebook. While the events leading up to the incident are not yet clear, Kazmierczak’s social media shows a history of support for Donald Trump and making baseless racist statements and accusations.
On Facebook, Kazmierczak’s public information describes himself as an “empty nester looking to enjoy retirement and 2nd [sic] half of my adventure.”
While images of Kazmierczak are publicly viewable on his Facebook profile, individual posts and reshares are not visible to those who are not on his friends list. From what can be seen, Kazmierczak used his profile to repeatedly express support for Donald Trump and disparage Democrats. In one post on September 11, 2025, he switched his profile picture to an image of the president standing in front of a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) podium—TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk was killed during a speaking event the day before. Several days after Kirk’s September 21 funeral, Kazmierczak changed his profile picture to Trump embracing Kirk’s widow.
In October 2021, he posted a political cartoon criticizing Omar’s security spending.
On an X account attributed to Kazmierczak (though his last name is spelled “Kazmiercak”), he was much more aggressive. Joining the platform in June 2025, the account’s first post on June 22 was in response to Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota criticizing the president’s decision to conduct airstrikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.
“You are weak and will say anything to get a vote. Disgusting,” the X account said.
A screenshot of the first post of an account attributed to Andrew Kazmierczak on June 22, 2025. (Source: X).
Many of his posts since then include videos of Black people fighting or engaging in violence. Other times, the account replies to similar content that disparaged people based on their race.
On June 8, 2025, the X account responded to another post saying “They keep having kids. They need to up the black on black[sic] crime.”
In a different response to a graphic video, the Kazmiercak account replied “always with the stomp on neck, kick in face, howling like animal[sic]. N*gros always jumping into ANY fight because they are untrained, evil beasts.”
Other offensive posts from the same account alleged in November and December 2025 that Black people were “reverting to apes” or that white people are more evolved than Black people.
The final posts from the account relate to the capture and removal of Nicolás Maduro as president of Venezuela by the U.S. military on January 4, 2026.
History of Anger
As details continue to emerge about the suspect, family members and neighbors have told the media that he did not hide his political views, even to the point that it had caused strains in his personal relationships.
The suspect’s younger brother told The Independent that Kazmierczak had lifelong anger issues and had been fixated on Omar and the Somali diaspora for years. Minnesota has the largest population of Somali immigrants and people of Somali descent in the United States. Omar was born in Somalia before fleeing to live in a refugee camp in Kenya for four years, then immigrating to Minnesota.
According to the brother, who did not wish to be named, Kazmierczak was a “piece of sh*t.”
He added, “He has had a hatred of the Somali community for probably 20 years. There’s a reason I don’t talk to him… He’s got a lot of anger, I have no idea where it comes from. He’s always been that way. In and out of treatment since he was a kid.”
Kazmierczak’s criminal history involves a conviction for auto theft in 1989 and multiple charges related to driving under the influence of alcohol. No previous charges related to violence have been found.
Rising Temperature
The assault on Omar comes amid a time of escalating threats against politicians, and as Trump specifically has castigated the 43-year-old lawmaker for years. The president recently referred to her as a “socialist” and calling her and U.S. Somalis “garbage” during a press conference.
“Their country stinks and we don’t want them in our country,” Trump said on December 2, 2025. “I can say that about other countries too. We don’t want them. We have to rebuild our country. You know, our country’s at a tipping point. We can go bad…We could go one way or the other and we’re going the wrong way if we keep taking garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is Garbage. She’s garbage.”
When asked about the assault on Omar, Trump responded, “I don’t think about her. I think she’s a fraud. She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.”
On January 27, U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) reported that 2025 had seen a climb in “concerning cases” directed against Members of Congress, their families, staff, and the Capitol Complex for the third year in a row.
USCP’s Threat Assessment Section said in a press release that there were 14,938 concerning statements, behaviors, and communications in 2025. This is an increase of over 5,000 cases in 2024, when USCP reporting 9,474 cases, which was also a rise from 8,008 in 2023.
Only days before the incident with Omar, Florida Democrat Maxwell Frost said a man punched him in the face in Utah. Frost claims the assailant told him that Trump was going to deport him.
Omar has been a consistent target for Trump since her election in 2019, when the President told Omar and three other female members of Congress—Reps. Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley—to “go back” to their countries. Of the four, Omar was the only one born outside of the U.S.
She is far from the only politician to be threatened as a result of Trump’s public statements. Others have also received threats after drawing the president’s ire, including six Democratic members of the House and the Senate, who released a video on November 20, 2025, reminding service members of their obligation to refuse illegal orders. All of the participants were former members of the United States military or intelligence services.
In response, the president lashed out.
“It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL,” Donald Trump posted to his social media platform Truth Social on November 20. “Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand – We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET.”
An hour later, he followed up: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH.”
Posts reshared by the president included small accounts calling for the state to execute the lawmakers.
“HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD,” one message shared by the president read.
Statements and reposts from the president called participants in the video “traitors,” a term that the president uses as a weapon, casting his critics as enemies of the state. Far from only a rhetorical attack, Trump’s words and anger carry consequences as his critics become targets of threats by his supporters and punishment by the administration, with several calling for Democrats to be arrested for treason (for which one punishment is the death penalty), and posts wishing for them to be hanged.
Navy veterans Sen. Mark Kelly (Arizona), Rep. Chris Deluzio (Pennsylvania), and Rep. Maggie Goodlander (New Hampshire), as well as Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (Pennsylvania), a former Air Force officer, and Sen. Elissa Slotkin (Michigan) a former CIA officer and Rep. Jason Crow (Colorado), a former Army Ranger all appeared in the video.
Judges have also been subject to unprecedented levels of threats, violence, and scorn by the president. An investigation by GPAHE into threats against the judiciary on fringe platforms published in March 2025 examined posts on Truth Social, TikTok, Gab, 4chan, Mewe, Minds, Rumble, and Telegram between January 1, 2025 and February 28, 2025. GPAHE’s analysis revealed an upward trend in violent rhetoric against judges that mirrors attacks from Trump and his allies. The platforms were inundated with retaliatory language against judges who opposed Trump’s executive orders, and most platforms also showed a spike in instances during the week of February 10, when a federal judge found the Trump administration was continuing to freeze federal funds despite a previous court order.
