At a Trump rally in North Carolina on Wednesday night, supporters of the president erupted into chants of “send her back” when he directly criticized Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
The chanting started after President Trump, in a free-wheeling broadside against Omar and “the squad,” mentioned various anti-American and anti-Semitic comments the congresswoman has made in the past. On Thursday morning, Trump denounced the chants but insisted that Omar and her fellow radical Democrats have an “obligation” to love their country.
Many on the left have declared that Trump, and anyone who supports him, is a racist after the president told Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came, then come back and show us how it is done.”
“Send her back”
But supporters of the president, fed up with the left’s abuse and baseless, constant accusations of bigotry, feel that the president has a point about the anti-Americanism of the four lawmakers. Speaking before a crowd in Greenville Wednesday night, Trump mocked each member of the “squad” in turn, but his commentary on Omar elicited a reaction like no other.
“Representative Omar blamed the United States for the terrorist attacks on our country, saying terrorism is a reaction to our involvement in other peoples’ affairs,” Trump began, to boos from the audience. “She smeared U.S. servicemembers involved in ‘Black Hawk Down’ — in other words, she slandered the brave Americans who were trying to keep peace in Somalia.”
Trump was referring to a 2017 tweet from Omar attacking American soldiers who fought in the Battle of Mogadishu as “Satan.” Trump also referenced a 2013 interview in which Omar blamed the West for Islamic terrorism and mocked the way people pronounce “al-Qaeda” in a menacing tone. He continued, referencing Omar’s infamous comment that 9/11 was the day “some people did something” and the time Omar pleaded with a federal judge to show compassion to men accused of joining ISIS in 2016.
“Omar minimized the September 11 attacks on our homeland, ‘some people did something.’ I don’t think so….She pleaded for compassion for ISIS recruits attempting to join the terrorist organization,” the president said. “Omar laughed that Americans speak of Al-Qaeda in a menacing tone and remarked that, ‘You don’t say American with this intensity.’”
As Trump turned to Omar’s comments on Israel, saying “Omar has a history of launching vicious anti-Semitic screeds,” the crowd broke into isolated chants of “send her back.” The chants swelled to a roar as Trump briefly stepped away from the podium, not acknowledging the chanting. He waited for the chants to die down and then continued, “she talked about the evil Israel and it’s all about the Benjamins, not a good thing to say.”
Trump disavows chants, questions Omar’s marital history
Trump disavowed the chants Thursday, saying he disagreed with their sentiment but that Omar and her fellow “squad” members have an obligation to love America. Trump and his supporters have said that the four lawmakers have shown hatred for the United States with their extreme rhetoric and policies. Omar, in particular, has been criticized by Tucker Carlson and others for showing ingratitude to America, which took her in as a refugee from Somalia.
“I was not happy with it, I disagree with it, but again I didn’t say that, they did,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding that he spoke “very quickly” to cut off the chants. But he maintained that the “squad” should “be more positive than they are, adding, “They have a big obligation, and the obligation is to love your country. Such hatred, they have such hatred…toward our country.”
Earlier Wednesday, Trump insinuated that Omar married her brother, an allegation that has been raised by many in conservative circles. In June, a campaign finance report revealed that Omar filed her taxes jointly with her second husband while she was still married to another man. “There’s a lot of talk about the fact that she was married to her brother. I know nothing about it,” Trump said, adding, “I’m sure that somebody would be looking at that.”
Dems rush to defend Omar
Top Democrats and 2020 Democratic candidates rushed to defend Omar and condemned the chants. Ocasio-Cortez said that Trump put “millions of Americans in danger” with the chants, while Omar accused Trump of “spewing…fascist ideology.” She added, “We are not in politics anymore. We are in racism… we are in a fascistic government.”
House Democrats including Ocasio-Cortez called for additional security for Omar and “the squad,” and accused Trump of inciting violence. Earlier this year, Democrats similarly rushed to claim that Trump “incited violence” against Omar because of her race by tweeting a video that juxtaposed her 9/11 comments with footage of the terror attack on the World Trade Center. Omar has repeatedly insisted that her love of country is beyond question, while accusing her critics of having racist motivations — even saying recently that she “probably love[s] this country more than anyone who is naturally born” in America.
Some conservatives including Ben Shapiro and several House Republican leaders also slammed the chants, while Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who has defended Trump’s “go back” tweets, did not. “I’ve said before that if you’re Somali refugee wearing a ‘MAGA’ hat, he doesn’t want to send you back. You’ll probably have dinner at the White House,” Graham said. “The bottom line is that if you embrace his policies, it doesn’t matter where you come from, he probably likes you,” he added.
Trump also mocked other members of the squad one-by-one at his rally Wednesday night, taking jabs at Ocasio-Cortez’s “three different names.” He pointed out that Tlaib “used the F-word to describe the presidency and your president” and said of Pressley, “[she] thinks that people with the same skin color all need to think the same. She said, ‘we don’t need any more brown faces that don’t want to be brown voices, we don’t need black faces that don’t want to be a black voice.'”
Earlier Wednesday, Democrats passed a resolution to condemn Trump’s “hate,” a measure they failed to take against Omar earlier this year after she made anti-Semitic comments about Israel. Democrats initially planned to censure Omar for making anti-Semitic comments, then backtracked. Meanwhile, Al Green (D-TX), a vocal impeachment advocate, seized on the Dump Trump momentum to push for an impeachment resolution that Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and House Democrats promptly shot down.
No comments: