During a rally in North Carolina on Wednesday night, President Trump resumed his attacks on four progressive Democratic congresswomen, singling out U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar in particular and inciting his crowd of passionate supporters to chant, “Send her back!”, CNN reported.
While the crowd called for Omar, a U.S. citizen, to leave the country, Trump made no effort to stop them, nor condemn them once their chants had ceased.
Omar was one of the four women who Trump attacked via a series of racist tweets on Sunday.
She, along with fellow first-term Democrat Reps Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and AyannaPressley, found themselves the unwarranted subjects of the president’s rallying cry for the congresswomen, who are all American citizens, to go back to their countries.
This comes after the women all recently spoke out against racist systems within the U.S., and in particular Trump’s immigration policies.
In his tweets targeting the congresswomen, Trump suggests they “go back” to their own countries and “fix” them instead.
“Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” he wrote in his Sunday tweets, adding , “These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough.”
Three of the four minority lawmakers were born in the U.S., and the other is a naturalized citizen.
Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx, an area which she now actively represents in Congress. Similarly, Tlaib was born in Detroit, which she also now represents. Pressley was born in Cincinnati, raised in Chicago, and now both lives in and represents Boston.
And Omar, who was born in Somalia, fled the country with her family as a child and sought asylum in the U.S., going on to become an official U.S. citizen in 2000. She now represents Minneapolis.
So Trump’s remarks were not only inflammatory but completely and utterly racist.
Following his tweets, Trump has only continued to blast the group of lawmakers, known as “The Squad”, a strategy which he and his aides believe will paint the Democratic Party as a far left, radical group.
This is in spite of Congress approving a resolution on Tuesday condemning his tweets, and saying that the posts had “legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color.”
During his rally in North Carolina on Wednesday, Trump spent a significant amount of time blasting “The Squad.”
During the 90-minute campaign rally, Trump repeated his call for the minority congresswomen to leave the country, telling the crowd, “These left-wing ideologues see our nation as a force of evil.”
“I have a suggestion for the hate-filled extremists who are constantly trying to tear our country down,” he said. “If they don’t like it, let them leave. Let them leave.”
Trump also brought into question the lawmakers’ devotion to the country, suggesting they “hate” America.
“They don’t love our country,” he told his crowd of fevered supporters. “I think in some cases they hate our country. They’re so angry.”
The President then moved on to attack members individually, giving Omar particular attention.
He blasted the progressive lawmaker with a litany of accusations, including claiming that she had “slandered the brave Americans who were trying to keep peace in Somalia.”
He said she minimized 9/11 when she said , “some people did something,” and also falsely accused her of supporting the terror group al-Qaeda because she had refused to condemn the terror group in a press conference this week.
“That’s our enemy, they are a very serious problem. She refused to answer, she didn’t want to give an answer to that question.”
Following his wild accusations, the crowd began chanting “Send her back!”, a rallied cry which Trump made no effort to stop and actually paused his speech to allow to continue and grow louder.
Once the chants had quieted down, he offered no condemnation for those who had joined in, and continued speaking.
On Wednesday night, Omar took to Twitter and tweeted a response to the chants.
She posted a quote from Maya Angelou, which reads, “You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise.”
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The tweet currently has almost 500,000 likes and nearly 100,000 retweets.
She then followed this up with a second Tweet featuring a photo of her presiding over the House chamber.
“I am where I belong, at the people’s house and you’re just gonna have to deal!” she wrote.
Fellow Democrats and presidential candiates Bernie Sanders , Joe Biden , and Kamala Harris also all tweeted responses in support of Omar, condemning the chant and in particular Trump’s allowance and, some might say, encouragement of the racist cries.
Trump has repeatedly attacked Rep. Omar and used her words against her and other Democrats.
In the past, he has accused her of saying “horrible things about Israel” and said she “hates Israel, hates Jews, it’s very simple”. This is in response to her comments about the Israeli government, particularly a tweet in which she suggested members of Congress support Israel, because they get campaign donations from pro-Israel groups and individuals. Thus, she said, they’re evoking historical stereotypes linking Jews to money and influence.
Trump has also claimed that Rep. Omar committed immigration fraud by illegally marrying her brother , a statement which Omar has dubbed “baseless rumors” that “are absolutely false.”
h/t: CNN , Buzzfeed News , ABC News
