The crowd at Donald Trump’s campaign rally in North Carolina erupted in a raucous chant of ‘send her back!’ after the US president fired a fresh broadside at Somali-American congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
Trump took the opportunity of his Make America Great Again rally in Greenville, North Carolina on Wednesday to launch another attack at one his favorite targets of the past week: Rep. Ilhan Omar of the four-woman progressive 'Squad' he's been feuding with.
Trump accused Omar of blaming the US for causing terrorist attacks by “saying that terrorism is a reaction to our involvement in other peoples’ affairs,” smearing the US servicemen involved in the Somalian civil war, “minimizing” the 9/11 attacks and “pleading for compassion for ISIS recruits.”
Concluding his tirade, Trump accused Omar of supporting Al-Qaeda, misquoting her remark from a 2013.
Accurate, or not, Trump’s rant whipped up the crowd enough for it to break out chanting, “Send her back!” That comes just a day after the House passed a resolution condemning a series of “racist” tweets by Trump, in which he suggested the four congresswomen should go back to the “broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Omar is the only one of the 'Squad' the call technically applies to, since the other three women were born in the US.
The newborn war cry is a remix of the permanent fixture of almost every Trump rally – the infamous “lock her up” slogan, targeting Hillary Clinton and her private server email scandal. Some on Twitter have rushed to declare this the turning point of an era.
The move from “lock her up” in 2016 to “send her back” today is the move from strongman lawlessness to white nationalism as your operating principle. Welcome to the 2020 campaign.
— Carlos Lozada (@CarlosLozadaWP) July 18, 2019
Predictably, the chant has sparked fresh accusations of racism towards the president.
.@realDonaldTrump & @GOP enablers have legitimized the racist chant of "send her back" to an American citizen. If @IlhanMN was white they would not use that racist trope.
If this horrifies you then vote, donate & organize like never before. The soul of our country is at stake. https://t.co/ZeYVX0HqAJ
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) July 18, 2019
It did not sit well with some conservatives either, who thought it in poor taste.
Anyone who follows me knows that I cover the far-left and that includes Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and I'm aggressive in my reporting which comes from a conservative angle
With that said, chanting "send her back" at Omar is not good
Keep in mind, I am one of her harshest critics
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 18, 2019
“Send her back” is an appalling chant. Omar is a US citizen.
My less-catchy chant would be: “Condemn her bigotry, combat her radicalism, and investigate her seriously alleged fraud!”
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) July 18, 2019
It did not take long for Omar to respond, shooting back with a quote by American poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou.
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.-Maya Angelou https://t.co/46jcXSXF0B
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) July 18, 2019
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