America's Talking - Omar attacked during Minneapolis town hall

Episode Date: January 31, 2026

(The Center Square) – U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar was attacked at a town hall event in Minneapolis on Tuesday night. During a call for the abolishment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and for the resignation of U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, a man stood up and yelled at Omar. He also sprayed an unknown substance on her with a syringe. Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxx Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to America's Talking. I'm J.D. Davidson, regional editor for the Center Square. Joining me today is Elise Abel, reporter for the Center Square who's covering Minnesota. And Elise, the last month, there has been plenty to talk about in Minnesota. What's the latest following last week's shooting of a protester, a nurse, a protester by Homeland Security? Yeah, this past couple of weeks we've had. a lot going on. Just in the past few days, we had representative Ilhan Omar. She was attacked at a town hall. The video actually from that is really interesting. She's talking about ice and abolishing ice and you need to get ice out of Minnesota and a man stands up and shoots something at her with

a syringe. They still are unsure what the liquid was, but she actually continued with her town hall. Security jumped in and the man was arrested. But yeah, just every day, there's lots of headlines coming out of Minnesota. We've had Gregory Bovino, who has been the ICE leader there in Minnesota in Minneapolis, participating in the immigration enforcement happening in the Twin Cities. It seems like he's going to be pulled out of the Twin Cities. Tom Holman has been sent to the Twin Cities by the Trump administration. So there's been a lot of movement from the administration, a lot of movement,

even just on Thursday morning, Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, and now she's running for governor in Minnesota. So there's been a lot coming out of the state. So yesterday afternoon you had a story. What's going on with the two agents who fired the shots on Saturday? Yeah, so it's a little unclear, actually. There's been some discrepancies within the stories that are coming out from the Trump and administration. So Gregory Bovino, so the shooting of Alex Pruddy happened on Saturday. Gregory Bovina, the leader of ICE there in the Twin Cities, he came out and said that the agents had been moved, that were involved in the shooting had been moved to a different city for their safety, but that they were still working. And then just yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security, so on Wednesday,

the Department of Homeland Security said that those agents, two agents are actually on kind of a standard administrative leave. So per Department of Homeland Security, per their policy, agents that are involved in an incident like that are usually put on a three-day administrative leave. So it's unsure how long that they've been on leave, when they were put on leave,

if they're still on leave even, because since that information was released on Wednesday, that is three days since. So it's unclear. Are those agents on leave still? There's just been very different stories coming out from different members of the Trump administration. You know, at least that's one thing that's interesting about everything that's going on in the Twin Cities right now. Usually when you have these big events, getting the information can be difficult.

Our struggle seems to be now trying to figure out what information is true and real. and that may change from day to day information we get on Tuesday. At that time, maybe the best information we can get, and all of a sudden it switches on Wednesday. Right. And it seems like, I mean, just with the world of social media that we live in, that's kind of every day, every day in the media, but also every day, if anyone's scrolling Twitter, you know,

you'll see one video and you'll see someone saying, oh, this is what this video means. And then the very next video, it could be the exact same clip and someone saying, oh, this is actually what's happening in that video. So it seems to be that the age that we're living in is just, you know, constant different sources of information and no one knows what to believe. And that seems to actually even be coming from the Trump administration. It seems like maybe they aren't always communicating or talking about the same things or it's a little bit unclear in messaging. But yeah, it seems like at least, you know, from people like Christy Noem, the same thing. Secretary of Homeland Security. They are standing behind these agents that were involved in the

Alex Friday shooting. They're standing behind the agents that were involved in the Renee Good shooting, and that's kind of a general position that the administration is taking. And thankfully, it hasn't, everything hasn't fallen on your shoulders the last month. Our Washington Bureau has done a nice job of picking up the Washington angle of this story. And the investigative team has done a good job. Yeah. Because all of this is still going on with the foundation, the months-long foundation of these fraud investigations that are going on.

We have a good piece up this morning from Jared Strong on whistleblowers connected to that fraud investigation. My initial point was earlier this week, there was a call between Tim Walls, Minnesota's governor, Tom Holman, President Trump, and there seems to be some movement, but both sides are kind of moving in different directions on that movement as well. Right. Well, and it's funny too because, you know, on one day we have President Trump coming out and saying, you know, oh, I had a great phone call with Tim Walz. And then the very next day, you know, he's like, yeah, I had a great phone call with Tim Walz. You know, I'm on great terms with the

Minneapolis mayor. And then the very next day, you know, he's posting something about how actually the mayor is horrible. And so it very much is a, you know, changing on a day by day basis. Because it also seems like the positions of the local and state leaders and the federal officials, they don't really know how to interact with each other. And that seems to be really what's playing out in Minneapolis. On a very public stage, it's becoming very clear that they aren't working from the same basis or even working towards the same goals. So I think that's what we're really seeing play out in Minneapolis.

And what, at least to me, what seems to get lost is the normal everyday people who live in Minneapolis. I have a daughter that lives in the Twin Cities, just on the south side of Minneapolis and their struggles and fears and worries regarding the protests, ice agents, and everything that seems to be going on is very real. It's, for us, it's, we're looking at it from hundreds and thousands of miles away from a top side view. All of this has a real impact on everyday Minnesotans just trying to,

survive each day. Right. Especially, you know, we've had a number of good stories on how this is impacting the schools and really how the schools and the teachers unions are kind of involved with the protests. So we've had some good stories on that have been looking at that kind of angle from it. But it really is having an actual impact on these, the people's lives in the Twin Cities. You know, businesses are closing. Schools went remote for a number of days. You know, students are staging walkouts. Like, this is having a real. impact in the lives of the people in the Twin Cities. Well, at least, thanks for joining us.

And please stay tuned to the Center Square for constant daily updates on everything, Minneapolis. Thanks so much.