Rep. Ilhan Omar Condemns GOP State Lawmaker's Facebook Post
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Rep. Ilhan Omar has condemned a Republican state senator from North Dakota who posted a long-debunked photo on his Facebook page that purports to show the Minnesota Democrat holding a weapon at an al-Qaida training camp.
State Sen. Oley Larsen, of Minot, has since removed the photo, which has been debunked by several sources since it appeared on social media over the summer. It's an Associated Press photo taken at a Mogadishu military training campus in 1978, before Omar was born.
Omar tweeted late Monday that the post was "pure propaganda designed to stir up hate and violence." And she said Facebook's "unwillingness to crack down on hate speech and misinformation" threatens not just her life, but American democracy.
Neither Larsen nor Facebook immediately responded to requests for comment Tuesday.
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