Washington: Ardent supporters of US President Donald Trump in a rally raised slogans against one of the four non-white Democrat Congresswomen, whom he criticized in a series of alleged ‘racist tweets’, chanting ‘send her back.’
Trump, during a rally Wednesday in North Carolina, defended his remarks against Democratic lawmakers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, accusing them of hating the country and that they should just ‘go back’ to where they came from.
The controversial statements and tweets by the president triggered widespread uproar and the US House of Representatives Tuesday passed a resolution to condemn his remarks against the women who have been critical of his harsh immigration policies.
“The leading voices of the Democrat Party are left-wing extremists who reject everything our nation stands for. These left-wing ideologues see our nation as a force of evil,” Trump said.
His supporters erupted with the chants ‘send her back’ as Trump was listing out his complaints against Omar.
The audience mocked the women when Trump first mentioned ‘the four congresswomen,’ informally known as ‘The Squad.’
As he mentioned each one by name, the crowd ridiculed the individual women as well.
Trump went on a riff attacking Omar and the crowd began chanting, ‘Send her back! Send her back!’
Omar was born in Somalia and came to the US as a child refugee.
A supporter in the crowd also shouted to send Tlaib back, though she was born in the United States.
A protester was removed from the rally for holding two handmade signs that read ‘Child Rapist’ and featured a photo of Trump with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
However, congresswoman Omar took Twitter to respond by quoting from Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise.”
“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,” Omar tweeted.
Earlier in the day, Trump told reporters that he had no regret by asking lawmakers who hate the country to leave.
“If people want to leave our country they can. If they don’t’ want to love our country. If they don’t want to fight for our country they can. I’ll never change on that,” he said as he indicated that he intends to make this a political campaign issue.
The Opposition Democratic leaders too have said the same.
Responding to questions, Trump asserted that he is winning the political fight with the Democrats.
“I think that they are not espousing the needs of our country these four congresswomen. I think that they said horrible things and the press don’t cover it. You should try covering it,” he said.
“When you look at some of the things they said they’re unthinkable. If somebody else or me or anybody else said things like that it would be historic. So, you ought to look at some of the horrible things said because it’s never been said before,” the president said.
The Democratic Party, he said, is really going in a direction that nobody thought possible.
“They are going to so far left they are going to fall off a cliff. I think they are making a big mistake. But who knows that is up to them,” he said.
PTI