“That’s Teddy,” said Tim Mynett, husband of the US representative Ilhan Omar, as their five-year-old labrador retriever capered around her office on Capitol Hill. “If you make too much eye contact, he’ll lose it. He’s my best friend – and he’s our security detail these days.”
The couple were sitting on black leather furniture around a coffee table. Apart from a sneezing fit that took her husband by surprise, Omar had an unusual Zen-like calm for someone who receives frequent death threats and is the subject of a vendetta from the most powerful man in the world.
Speaking at a rally-style event in Pennsylvania last week, Donald Trump mocked her hijab and alleged that the Somali-born Omar married her own brother to gain US citizenship. “Therefore she’s here illegally,” he said. “She should get the hell out. Throw her the hell out! She does nothing but complain.”
