Donald Trump has said he was unhappy with his supporters chanting
‘send her back’ after he criticised a young Democratic congresswoman who he
suggested should leave the US.
Speaking in the Oval
Office, the US president claimed he tried to stop the chant, which came after
he recited a litany of complaints about Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who fled to
the US as a child with her family from Somalia.
Video shows the
president pausing his remarks, appearing to drink in the uproar and not
admonishing his supporters as they chanted. A day later, and after criticism
from prominent Republicans, he said: ‘I was not happy with it’.
He said he ‘would
certainly try’ to stop the chant should it return at a subsequent rally.
When asked why he failed to stop the chanting.
He said: ‘I think I did…
I started speaking very quickly’. Footage shows
that he allowed the chanting to continue for 13 seconds before talking again.
Ms Omar told reporters: ‘We have condemned his remarks. I believe
he is fascist.’
Citing the chants, she said: ‘This is what this president and his
supporters have turned our country into.’
She said his taunt that she and others should return to their
native countries is ‘to every single person who shares an identity with me.
He’s telling them that this is not their country’.
So far, no Republican lawmakers are directly taking on Mr Trump
over the episode.
The muted reactions by congressional Republicans followed a
pattern that has become familiar after numerous incidents in Mr Trump’s
presidency when he has made antagonistic or racially provocative comments.
At the campaign rally in Greenville, North Carolina, Mr Trump tore
into four progressive congresswomen who last weekend he tweeted should return
to their native countries if they ‘hate America’.
Of the four, who strongly oppose many of Mr Trump’s policies, one
is black, one is Hispanic and two are Muslim. All are American citizens, and
three were born there.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters that such
cries ‘have no place in our party and no place in this country’. But Mr
McCarthy, a staunch Trump ally, said the president’s aversion to Ms Omar is
based on ideology, not race.
‘This is about socialism v
freedom,’ he said, a refrain Republicans are increasingly using as they begin
trying to frame their offensive against Democrats for the 2020 presidential and
congressional campaigns. Republican Adam Kinzinger of Illinois tweeted that the
‘send her back’ chant was ‘ugly, wrong, & would send chills down the spines
of our Founding Fathers.
This ugliness must end, or we risk our great union’. Fellow
Republican Tom Emmer said: ‘There’s no place for that kind of talk. I don’t
agree with it.’
But he defended Mr Trump, saying there is not ‘a racist bone in
this president’s body’ and asserting that Mr Trump ‘said wrong’ what he
actually meant.
‘What he was trying to say is that if you don’t appreciate this
country, you don’t have to be here.
That goes for every one of us. It has nothing to do with your
race, your gender, your family history.
It has to do with respecting and loving the country that has given
you the opportunities which you have.’ Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell
said on Fox Business News that it is time to ‘lower the rhetoric’ about racism.
He did not mention the crowd’s chants or Mr Trump’s acceptance of
them.
Mr Trump has also been criticising Democrats Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of
Massachusetts. The Democratic-led House voted on Tuesday to condemn Mr Trump’s
tweets as racist. On Wednesday, it rejected an effort by one Democrat that was
opposed by party leaders to impeach Mr Trump.
Source: Metro
No comments:
Post a Comment