Minneapolis City Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai is receiving backlash over her inflammatory comments at a community music festival over the weekend.
During the Uptown Porchfest on Saturday, Chugtai was captured on video endorsing mayoral candidate Omar Fateh and taking aim at current Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey - and she did it in vulgar fashion.
"I'm running for the City Council again and today I talk to you about my friend, my brother Omar Fateh," Chugtai said to the gathered crowd in Uptown. "Because (expletive) Jacob Frey, (expletive) fascism, and (expletive) Donald Trump."
Chugtai also posted the video of it to her Instagram page. (Warning: Strong Language)
The office of Mayor Jacob Frey provided a statement about the comments on Tuesday afternoon.
“The mayor believes in collaboration and the importance of setting aside politics to find common ground. Unfortunately, it’s clear that the City Council majority doesn’t share those same values. The mayor remains focused on working together to deliver for the people of Minneapolis.”
Her remarks also drew sharp criticism from some council members with Linnea Palmisano, Andrea Jenkins, and Michael Rainville releasing a joint statement condemning the remarks.
They called Chugtai's behavior an "extraordinary breach of decorum" and also demanded an apology to the mayor and Minneapolis residents.
WCCO Radio political analyst Blois Olson says in the aftermath of the political assassination of Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, Democrats had vowed to tone down the rhetoric.
"And now you have a sitting city council member, using that kind of language against the sitting mayor," Olson says. "That's not toning down the rhetoric. And by the way, that's not a Republican-Democrat issue, that's a Democrat versus Democrat issue. It doesn't do anything to help the tone in what is going to be a very tense mayor's race."
Olson says it remains to be seen if it affects her race.
“This type of rhetoric is dangerous — it incites harm to the mayor and it undermines the trust residents have in local government," says a statement from Palmisano provided to WCCO. "When I hear these same colleagues assert that the mayor 'doesn't work with the Council,' I am stunned. I see the mayor consistently and publicly make overtures of working with the City Council, and they affront him at every turn. This is not about 'working together' or 'collaborating.' This is about a majority of my colleagues who've decided that anyone who disagrees with or challenges them is their enemy, and with CVP Chughtai specifically, you're either in full agreement with her or you're a fascist. I disagree regularly, and I hope respectfully, with my colleagues. Yet, I would never go yell into a microphone at a public event like this.”
Chugtai represents Ward 10 which is comprised of the Whittier, Lowry Hill East, East Bde Maka Ska, South Uptown, and East Harriet neighborhoods. She is also the first-born daughter in a Muslim immigrant family from Pakistan and is the first Muslim on the Minneapolis City Council. She's also the youngest city council person in Minneapolis history at 27-years old.
Fateh and Frey are just two of eight candidates running for mayor in the city.