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What was supposed to be an ordinary town hall meeting in Minneapolis unfolded into a moment that captured the raw strain running through American politics. Folding chairs, local questions, a familiar routine of civic engagement—until it wasn’t. In the middle of the event, U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar became the target of a startling act that forced the room, and later the country, to confront how close political hostility now sits to physical harm.
Witnesses initially struggled to understand what had happened. A man in the audience stood, approached quickly, and discharged a liquid from a syringe-like object toward Omar. For a split second, confusion replaced comprehension. Security reacted immediately. The room shifted from public forum to emergency scene in the span of a breath.
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