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Trump And More Weigh In On Controversial 'Send Her Back' Chant At Wednesday's Rally

Alex Nitzberg
Alex Nitzberg  |  July 18, 2019 1:25 PM
Wednesday evening at President Trump’s Greenville, North Carolina rally, some members of the crowd could be heard chanting “Send her back!” about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN). The president had been speaking about the congresswoman when the chant began: 
President Trump has recently been targeting “the squad,” a group of four liberal legislators that includes Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Rep. Ilhan Omar. In a tweet thread last Sunday he suggested that unnamed progressive female legislators should “go back and help fix” their countries of origin before sounding off about how to run America. It seems that the tweets referred to “the squad,” but of the four legislators, only Rep. Omar was born outside of the United States. Legislators and commentators have voiced their disapproval about the chant heard from the audience at the rally last evening. For her part, Rep. Omar said that she belongs in Congress and she’s not leaving:

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) said that the president and his party “have legitimized the racist chant”:

Presidential hopefuls New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke also weighed in:

Senate Minority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer described it as reminiscent of dictatorships: “The way the president appeals to the worst instincts of people, what was shouted and chanted at the rally last night without the president upbraiding them, was despicable, despicable—and eerily familiar to what happens in dictatorships.”

Rep. Justin Amash (I-MI), who recently left the Republican party and declared himself an independent, said that the chant “is the inevitable consequence of President Trump’s demagoguery.”

Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) condemned both the chant and the far left:

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Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, who himself is Jewish, described the congresswoman as an anti-Semite while also denouncing the chant:

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush concurred with Shapiro’s analysis:

On Thursday, the president himself weighed in on the chants. In short, he said he was not a fan of the message. "I was not happy with it - I disagree with it," he told a press pool.