“Say one more insulting word about my community, you Texan, and I’ll make you regret it,” Ilhan Omar shouted from the Congressional seat, her voice trembling with anger, pointing directly at Ted Cruz. The Foreign Affairs Committee chamber fell silent as she attacked Cruz’s sarcastic remark about the “Somali community in Minnesota” during the debate on foreign aid and welfare fraud. Cruz smirked, leaning back comfortably in his chair, his voice even but sharp as a knife: “Ms. Omar, I’m just stating the facts based on the data. Billions of dollars of American taxpayers’ money are being misused in welfare programs in Minnesota – a figure nearly equal to Somalia’s GDP. And when I called it the ‘Mogadishu of the Midwest,’ I wasn’t insulting the community – I was pointing out the failures of the policies you and your party support.” Omar stood up suddenly, walked closer to the microphone, trying to maintain a confident tone: “You’re a fugitive from Canada who fled to avoid military service, then came here to claim to be the number one ‘patriot.’ You have no right to talk about anyone’s country!” Cruz remained unfazed. He slowly rose, Omar looked straight in the eye, and calmly delivered a message. Omar sat down, his face pale… and fell into a rare silence.