Trump’s caustic comments against four Democratic congresswomen of color, which have been widely condemned as racist, sent his supporters at a campaign rally in North Carolina on Wednesday into a frenzied cry to ‘send her back’ after he mentioned Rep. Ilhan Omar.
“These left-wing ideologues see our nation as a force of evil,” President Trump said at the rally in Greenville. “They want to demolish our constitution, weaken our military (and) eliminate the values that built this magnificent country.”
Keeping up his attacks that began several days ago, Trump took aim at Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.
Omar, a Somali-American and one of two Muslim women in Congress, received the worst of the crowd’s reaction.
Trump again raised claims about Omar that have been debunked.
“Omar laughed that Americans speak of al Qaeda in a menacing tone,” Trump said, referencing an interview Omar gave in 2013. “You don’t say America with this intensity. You say al Qaeda makes you proud. Al Qaeda makes you proud. You don’t speak that way about America.”
Trump also alleged that Omar has a history of “launching vicious anti-Semitic screeds.”
Omar responded on Twitter with a poem by 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.”
On Sunday morning, Trump suggested in a series of tweets that the four progressive congresswomen, all of whom are U.S. citizens as the Constitution requires, “go back” to their home countries. The House voted to condemn those comments as racist on Tuesday.
He defended his statements on Tuesday, tweeting, “I don’t have a Racist bone in my body!”