Is a video of Minneapolis mayor candidate Omar Fateh saying "Look at me, I am the mayor now" authentic? No, that's not true: Fake audio was added to a clip from a real video of Fateh speaking to a state Senate hearing in 2022 in which he never spoke those words. The voice and accent in the fake audio do not match Fateh's own voice and accent heard in the 2022 video. Fateh also was not a candidate for mayor in 2022, so making such a statement then would be out of context.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) shared on X on August 2, 2025. The caption with the video read:
Just like in England, it's happening everywhere!
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: screenshot of X.com by Lead Stories)
Just like in England, it's happening everywhere! pic.twitter.com/iqgdYxe2px
-- HJB News (@HJB_News__) August 2, 2025
The seven-second clip shows Fateh wearing the same coat, tie, and shirt as seen in the Senate hearing video. The microphone, chair, and curtains are also identical to that 2022 video:
(Source: screenshot of YouTube by Lead Stories)
Lead Stories viewed the entire hearing video on the Minnesota Senate Media Services YouTube account. At no point did Fateh say "Look at me. I am the mayor now." Fateh's voice and American accent during the hearing do not match the voice or Somali accent of the audio in the short clip.
The voice and accent on the fake audio, however, did sound quite similar to those of Barkhad Abdi, the Somali actor who was nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actor for his performance opposite Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips. It was Abdi who spoke the memorable lines to Hanks' character "Look at me. Look at me. I am the captain now."
Fateh, the son of Somali immigrants to the United States, was born in Washington, D.C., in 1990, and grew up in northern Virginia. He was elected as a Democrat to the Minnesota Senate in 2020. He announced his candidacy for mayor of Minneapolis in November 2024. The election is set for November 4, 2025.
Some critics have attacked Fateh by claiming he would impose Sharia law, which is an Islamic legal system derived from the Quran. The caption "just like England" on this video appears to be a reference to Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim elected mayor of London.
