Mainstream media outlet slammed for ‘disgraceful' reporting on family of alleged Boulder terrorist
USA Today ran an article on Wednesday with the headline, "Boulder suspect's daughter dreamed of studying medicine. Now she faces deportation." The article's subheading said Soliman's teenage daughter, Habiba Soliman, "moved to the U.S. hoping to study medicine" but "then her father, Mohamed Soliman, was charged with a hate crime in an attack aimed at peaceful Jewish demonstrators."
After intense criticism online, the outlet appears to have changed the article's headline to now read, "Habiba Soliman wanted to be a doctor. Then, her father firebombed Jewish marchers in Boulder." USA Today said the article was "recast and updated with new information."
Soliman, 45, is an Egyptian national who overstayed his visa after entering the U.S. during the Biden administration, three DHS and ICE sources told Fox News. On Sunday, he allegedly attacked a group of Jewish peaceful demonstrators using Molotov cocktails, seriously injuring more than a dozen people, including an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor.
Soliman's family is in federal custody and their visas have been revoked, sources told Fox News. The family is being processed for expedited removal.
In an X statement posted on Tuesday afternoon, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said her agency is investigating his family to identify "to what extent" they knew about the alleged attack.
"Mohamed's despicable actions will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, but we're also investigating to what extent his family knew about this horrific attack," Noem said in the post. "If they had any knowledge of it or if they provided any support to it."
The USA Today article lamented the suddenly transformed futures of Soliman's family members, highlighting Habiba's ambitions to be in the medical profession and her progress in learning English.
The outlet wrote that "prior to the attack, Habiba Soliman had written about her hope of accomplishing great things in the U.S. … Instead, the White House said on X on Tuesday that Mohamed Soliman's wife and five children 'could be deported by tonight.'"
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, commented on the piece on X, calling it "a disgraceful article."
"Instead of carrying water for the family of an illegal alien terrorist, USA Today should spend some time and ink talking about the victims of this heinous crime," said Lummis.
"A terrorist sets elderly Jewish Americans on fire and USA Today profiles the terrorist's daughter—not the victims," wrote conservative commentator John Hasson.
"There is no bottom for these publications. None," said Fox News contributor Joe Concha.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson also called the article "disgraceful."
"Instead of drooling over an illegal terrorist's family, USA Today should have profiled the innocent victims targeted by this sick individual that was allowed into our country by the Biden Administration," Jackson wrote.
She added that "USA Today should apologize to the victims and their families for this disgraceful piece attempting to garner sympathy for a terrorist's family."
USA Today did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Fox News Digital's Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and Fox News Channel's Bill Melugin contributed to this article.
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