‘Rep. Ilhan Omar Partied on 9/11 Anniversary’ Claim

On September 18 2019, United States President Donald Trump retweeted (archived here) a now-deleted claim that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) “partied” on the 18th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks:

Trump also wrote:

Ilhan Omar, a member of AOC Plus 3, will win us the Great State of Minnesota. The new face of the Democrat Party!

The same morning, the original tweet retweeted by the President was removed. But of course, that tweet had already been archived. It was sent by conspiracy theorist and “comedian” Terrence K. Williams on September 16 2019:

The (heavily misspelled) tweet read as follows:

GET THIS WOMAN OUT OF OFFICE

Ilhan Omar partied on the anniversary of 9/11 because she believes “

“Some People Just Did Somethings”

President Trump was bashed for playing golf On MLK day but it’s okay for Omar to party? RT so everyone can see this

???? #IlhanOmarisMustGo pic.twitter.com/y9SoIHPDCo

Underneath the text was video of Rep. Omar purportedly dancing on the anniversary of 9/11; Williams said outright that Omar “partied on the anniversary of 9/11.” The same footage was shared — but in a very different context — by Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder Adam Green on September 13 2019:

Green used the tags “#CBC2019, “#CBCWeek,” and “#cbcweekend.” “CBC” appeared to stand for “Congressional Black Caucus,” and tweets posted the same day as Green’s appeared to show video of the same event. Another tweet advertised a CBC Week event for the evening of September 12 2019, the day after the 9/11 anniversary:

Omar herself responded directly to Trump on Twitter, noting the event was not held on September 11 2019:

CNN’s Jake Tapper tweeted a thread about the claim as it moved across Twitter, noting that the particular event Omar attended was on September 13 2019, not September 11. Green’s organization confirmed it took place on that date:

To recap, PCCC’s Adam Green shared video of Ilhan Omar dancing at a September 13 2019 Congressional Black Caucus reception. Conspiracy theorist and “conservative comedian” Terrence K. Williams shared the video, falsely claiming it depicted Omar dancing on the anniversary of 9/11 in 2019. President Trump retweeted Williams’ later deleted tweet, and Trump’s tweet remained up despite Williams’ deletion. Williams neither referenced nor accounted for his tweet and its subsequent, quiet deletion.