North Dakota Democrats urge resignation over fake Omar photo

Source: Associated Press

Updated 2:34 pm CDT, Friday, October 25, 2019



Photo: Tom Stromme, AP

FILE - In this March 4, 2015 file photo, Sen. Oley Larsen, R-Minot, speaks in Bismarck, N.D. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., has condemned the 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. Larsen has since removed the photo, which has been debunked by several sources since it appeared on social media over the summer. Omar calls the post "pure propaganda designed to stir up hate and violence."


BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota Senate Democrats have joined the call for a state senator to resign his leadership position in the wake of his Facebook posts targeting a Muslim congresswoman from Minnesota.

The Bismarck Tribune reported that Democratic senators wrote a letter Thursday to Sen. Oley Larsen, a Minot Republican, asking that he relinquish his position as president pro tempore. Their letter comes a day after Larsen sent an email to his fellow senators, asking to "gauge each of your stance" on his leadership role.

"I personally do not feel that this action warrants resignation of my Pro Tempore status," he wrote. "I ask each of you to provide me your opinion on this issue to assist me in deciding my next action."

Larsen this week posted a long-debunked photo that purports to show Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar holding a weapon at an al-Qaida training camp. The image is an Associated Press photo showing a female Somali army recruit at a Mogadishu military training campus in 1978, four years before Omar was born in 1982.



Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/us/article/North-Dakota-Democrats-urge-resignation-over-fake-14562681.php