Another Republican congressional candidate calls for Ilhan Omar to be hanged

On Tuesday, the Tampa Bay Timesreported that yet another GOP congressional candidate, Florida veteran George Buck, called for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) to be hanged, in a fundraising email to his supporters.

Buck, who is running against Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist and who was also the GOP's nominee in 2018, promoted an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that Omar, the first Somali-American Muslim woman to serve in Congress, is secretly working for al-Qaeda, and said, "We should hang these traitors where they stand." The email was made to look like a letter, and signed by Buck.

Pressed about the email by reporters, Buck initially denied he was the author, saying "That was not me. I did not see that. I would never talk like that." Later, however, he sent the Tampa Bay Times another email that appeared to stand by the comments, saying, "Anyone who commits treason against the United States should be tried to the full extent of the law."

The controversy comes just after another Republican congressional candidate, Danielle Stella, tweeted that Omar should be hanged for treason, which resulted in her suspension from Twitter. Stella is running for Omar's own Minnesota seat.