Trump Is Spreading Dangerous Lies About Ilhan Omar and 9/11

It took just a few hours for President Donald Trump’s latest lie about Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar to fall apart, after the president boosted a patently false smear that Omar had “partied on the anniversary of 9/11.”

The initial—since deleted—tweet from self-proclaimed “Actor • Comedian • Commentator” Terrance K. Williams featured a video of Omar bopping enthusiastically to Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts,” claiming that the footage had been taken “on the anniversary of 9/11.”

“Girl, what in the world were you celebrating?” Williams asks in a video split screen accompanying shots of Omar dancing.

As you might have guessed, the whole thing is bullshit. The footage was actually taken at a Sep. 13 Congressional Black Caucus event, and shared to Twitter that evening by Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green. Also, it’s delightful.

Still, on Wednesday—two days after Williams’ tweeted his lie—Trump boosted the message to his nearly 65 million followers, insisting that Omar will “will win us the Great State of Minnesota.”

Omar herself responded to Trump’s smear shortly after he amplified Williams’ lie, noting that the president is “continuing to spread lies that put my life at risk.”

If this all feels depressingly familiar to you, it’s because not only is this far from the first time that Trump gone out of his way to spread easily disproven lies about Omar, but it’s also not the first time Trump has shared Williams’ conspiracy theories; in August the president retweeted Williams’ assertion that Bill and Hillary Clinton orchestrated the jailhouse death—since officially ruled a suicide—of accused child rapist Jeffrey Epstein.

While Williams’ initial smear of Omar has been removed from Twitter—although it’s unclear whether he deleted the tweet itself, or if Twitter took it down after complaints—Trump’s quote-tweet boost is at this time still up.