‘SEND HER BACK’ — THE BACKLASH
Baying Trump fans’ chant at rally as storm over Muslim politician grows
DONALD Trump and his supporters faced a backlash last night as even Republicans condemned a rally in which the US president’s fans chanted ‘Send her back’ about a Muslim congresswoman.
Sensing the mood, Mr Trump distanced himself from his supporters’ chants, saying: ‘I felt a little bit badly about it.’
Mr Trump escalated his row with four left-wing, ethnic minority US congresswomen – known as ‘The Squad’ – at Wednesday’s campaign rally in North Carolina.
Thousands of supporters cheered Mr Trump as he again accused Alexandria OcasioCortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar of ‘hating’ America.
Three are US-born while Ms Omar emigrated to the US as a young child from war-torn Somalia. Mr Trump has urged all of them to return to their country of origin and try living there.
Ms Omar became the chief target of the crowd on Wednesday as Mr Trump recited a litany of complaints about her. Pausing for 11 seconds when they started their chants, the president appeared to relish the sound of ‘Send her back’ that echoed those of ‘Lock her up’ against Hillary Clinton in his 2016 election rallies.
Ahead of the rally, Mr Trump referred to long-standing slurs against Ms Omar by her opponents, who accused her of marrying her brother for immigration purposes, a claim she has dismissed as ‘disgusting lies’.
Mr Trump said: ‘There’s a lot of talk about the fact that she was married to her brother. I know nothing about it. I hear she was married to her brother.’
But amid widespread condemnation, Mr Trump later said: ‘I would say that I was not happy with it. I disagreed with it. But again I didn’t say that. They did. And I disagreed with it.’ He did not say if he would ask his supporters to stop such behaviour.
Mr Trump was condemned by senior Democrats with Senator Chuck Schumer saying he ‘whipped up a toxic brew of racism, xenophobia and nativism’. Presidential contender Kamala Harris said he had ‘defiled the office of president’ while rival Bernie Sanders accused Mr Trump of ‘stoking the most despicable and disturbing currents in our society’. Ms Omar dubbed Mr Trump a ‘fascist’.
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said their chants ‘have no place in our party and no place in this country’. Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger tweeted that the ‘Send her back’ chant was ‘ugly, wrong, & would send chills down the spines of our Founding Fathers.’
However, Republicans who condemned the crowd held off on the president. Mr McCarthy, a key Trump ally, insisted the aversion to Ms Omar was based on ideology not race. ‘This is about socialism versus freedom,’ he said.
In Britain, foreign secretary and Tory leadership contender Jeremy Hunt said the rally chanting was ‘deeply concerning’. He added: ‘There is absolutely no place in this country for the language that the president used, which is totally offensive.’
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn branded Mr Trump a ‘racist’ on Twitter. ‘If Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt won’t use ‘‘the R word’’, I will: Donald Trump telling four Congresswomen of colour to ‘‘go back’’ is racist,’ he said. ‘The two contenders to be prime minister should call out this far-right hate speech for what it is.’
Trump supporters have noted that in Mr Trump’s original attack on The Squad at the weekend, he did not call for forcible repatriation, as some are claiming, since he then suggested the women come back to the US. He said on Twitter: ‘Why don’t they 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.’
Mr Trump came under additional pressure yesterday as unsealed court documents indicated the FBI believed Mr Trump and his press secretary were involved in discussions that led to an illegal hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the 2016 campaign. The newly revealed FBI report claimed Mr Trump and Hope Hicks spoke repeatedly with Michael Cohen, Mr Trump’s exlawyer, in October 2016 when Ms Daniels threatened to sell her story. The evidence suggests that Ms Hicks – a Trump loyalist who has left the White House – might have lied to the FBI.
‘Whipped up a toxic brew’