At this point, Ilhan Omar is a living, breathing Rosetta stone for the absurdity and menace of politics in the Trump era.

Consider the situation: as Omar is slammed from all sides for supposedly spreading racist “tropes” — namely the idea that Jews hold dual loyalties and manipulate US politics — her detractors suggest that, as a Muslim immigrant, she may be a disloyal American who makes common cause with Islamic terrorists. And one side making these accusations is a Republican Party that is increasingly making common cause with open white supremacists and antisemites. All the while, Omar receives death threats from unhinged racists.

The latest incident to inflame controversy around Omar is an excerpt of a speech she gave at Council on American-Islamic Relations event held last month in Los Angeles. In the offending passage, in which Omar complains about the mistreatment of Muslims as a group in the wake of the September 11 attack, she says that “some people did something, and all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.”