Days after Donald Trump sent a series of tweets about four freshman Democratic members of Congress — who are referred to as “The Squad” — the president continued taking shots at the four women at a rally in North Carolina on Wednesday night. This led to chants from the crowd that many observers found disturbing.
It started, per The Inquisitr, when Trump launched a series of tweets targeting four Democratic members of Congress — Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rep. Ayanna Pressley — and asked “why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
Because all three are women of color, all are American citizens and elected officials, and three of the four were born in the United States, Trump’s tweets were widely denounced as racist. The House of Representatives, per The New York Times, voted this week to condemn the tweets.
After some back and forth with the congresswomen, Trump once again took aim at them at his rally on Wednesday.
According to Twitter posts by CNN reporter Daniel Dale, Trump asked if Rep. Pressley is “related to Elvis.” He denounced the four women as “hate-filled extremists,” and once again reiterated his desire for them to leave the country. He also repeatedly referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren as “Pocahontas,” a name he has been ascribing to her for some time.
In addition, per a tweet from The New York Times national politics reporter Astead Wesley, after the president referenced Rep. Ilhan Omar in particular, it led to cries from the crowd of “traitor” and “treason,” and eventually a sustained chant of “send her back.” Before long, the phrase “send her back” was trending No. 1 on Twitter.
The chants — which recalled the “lock her up” chants directed at Hillary Clinton at Trump rallies during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and long afterward — led to some fearful reactions on social media.
Noting women among his rally supporters, Pres ridicules critics – “and they say women don’t love Trump . I think they do,” he said, citing women who support his policies on the military, borders, law enforcement, education and low taxes. pic.twitter.com/8ru7q2zHot
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) July 18, 2019
“The crowd at Trump’s rally chanting ‘send her back’ after the President viciously and dishonestly attacked Ilhan Omar is one of the most chilling and horrifying things I’ve ever seen in politics,” Jon Favreau, the former speechwriter for President Barack Obama and now the host of the Pod Save America podcast, tweeted during the rally.
Trump has spent the last several minutes attacking @IlhanMN which culminated in the crowd chanting “Send Her Back” pic.twitter.com/GYSInidIFZ
— jordan (@JordanUhl) July 17, 2019
“‘Send her back.’ ‘Lock her up,’” journalist Rebecca Traister tweeted in response to the chants. “Punish her, harm her, take away her power as a signal of your own. This grows ever more chilling & dangerous.”