As Rep. Ilhan Omar shifted her gaze from a cheering crowd at a Tuesday night town hall in her district, a man burst from his seat in the front row, charged at Omar, and sprayed her with an unknown substance from a syringe.
While it was initially unclear what substance was sprayed on Omar, reports now indicate it was apple cider vinegar. What initially looked shocking luckily turned out to be harmless.
Omar is not alone in being targeted. The annual Capitol Police threat assessment report, coincidentally released just hours before the Minnesota representative’s town hall, stated that Capitol Police investigated nearly 15,000 threats to members of Congress, their families, staff, and the Capitol complex in 2025—a 57 percent increase from 2024. In 2017, that number was under 4,000.
