Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents several article excerpts, various tweets, and two YouTube videos about the "Send her back" chant that occurred at Trump's July 17, 2019 rally.
Selected comments from those YouTube videos and article excerpts are also included in this post.
The content of this post is presented for historical and socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
Special thanks to Illhan Omar, and the other members of "the Squad" for who they are for what they represent, for what they have accomplished, and for what they have the ability, the will, and the capability to accomplish to make the United States & the world a better place for everyone.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/07/article-excerpts-comments-videos-tweets.html for a companion pancocojams post about this subject that is entitled "Article Excerpts About The "Send Her Back" Chant (Trump Rally July 17, 2019)". That post includes a July 20, 2019 article excerpt about Trump's reversal of his "criticisms" about this "Send her back" chant.
I divided these posts up because I think that together they were too long to read on mobile phones.
****
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
This blog post departs from my decision not to focus on politics in this cultural blog. I have published other posts on this blog on African American protest chants (click the African American protest chant tag for those posts). However, I've mostly stayed away from focusing current American politics (or even mentioning) Trump's name. But reading articles, tweets, and comments about the "Send her home" chant, and afterwards, watching videos of that rally, I feel compelled to document this historical, political, and cultural point.
To be very clear, I'm not being neutral in this post. Instead, the article excerpts, tweets, and the majority of the selected comments were selected which reflect my position as a person who considers the "Send her back" chant to be abhorrent for a number of reasons, and not just I believe that the chant is racist.
Click for an article about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY); Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA); and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), all Representatives to the United States Congress (House) who are informally known as "the Squad" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/who-is-the-squad-what-you-need-to-know-about-aoc-ocasio-cortez-omar-tlaib-pressley/ Who is "the Squad"? What you need to know about Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pressley and Tlaib by Jason Silverstein, July 16, 2019 / 7:40 PM / CBS NEWS
****
SELECTED TWEETS
Twitter Excerpt #1:
From https://twitter.com/IlhanMN Rep. Illhan Omar
"Pinned Tweet
Ilhan Omar
Verified account
@IlhanMN
Jul 17 [2019]
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.
-Maya Angelou
Ilhan Omar Retweeted Jon Favreau
Jon Favreau
Verified account
@jonfavs
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."
4:46 PM - 17 Jul 2019
-snip-
The italics represent the minor change that I made in the way these tweets are presented on this blogfor the purposes of clarification.
****
Twitter Excerpt #2
From https://forums.talkingpointsmemo.com/t/omar-flays-trump-i-believe-he-is-fascist/104238/107 Omar Flays Trump: ‘I Believe He Is Fascist’
-snip-
These selected comments are from that article's discussion thread. All of these comments are from July 18, 2019 (Numbers are added for referencing purposes only).
1. irasdad
“Though Trump claimed on Thursday that he ‘was not happy’ with the chants and that he tried to stop the chants by ‘speaking very quickly,’ in reality the President stood silently and let the chants continue…”
**
2. rucleare
"Preach, young lady. Preach! This year is the 150th anniversary of Gandhi’s birth. It’s about time speaking truth unabashedly to power came back into vogue."
**
3. missliberties
"Trump is a fascist.
True.
Definition of fascist: a person who is extremely right-wing or authoritarian: fascists made death threats against immigrants and asylum seekers.
Definition of fascism: an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization.
• (in general use) extreme right-wing, authoritarian, or intolerant views or practice.
Racist is just such a loaded word with a long history of being distorted etc.
But fascist is really what Trump is.
They call democrats socialists and communist for having the audacity to stand up to fascism."
**
4. rucleare
[quoting hornblower]
Trump has actually said he tried to stop the chant. Even he is embarrassed. That itself is pretty amazing.
"Uh, no. He said he sped up talking while it was going on, not that he tried to stop it. That would have required something along the lines of raising one arms to quell the crowd and saying “There’s no room for that kind of talk here. Let’s not have that, okay?” Which. He. Did. Not. Do."
**
5. xpurg8d
[quoting hornblower]
Trump has actually said he tried to stop the chant. Even he is embarrassed. That itself is pretty amazing.
“He says a lot of things, and most of them aren’t true. Standing back and basking in the glow of his adorers chanting isn’t “trying to stop” anything. He truly thinks that if he didn’t chant along with them, he can claim he’s completely blameless, even though the world at large can see his orchestration.”
**
6. iceape
"Follow the link to her twitter and read the replies to her tweets. It is sickening."
-snip-
“Sickening” here almost certainly has the standard negative definition of disgusting (something that makes you sick) and not the positive meaning from African American Vernacular English (something that is or someone who does something very well).
Here's the address for Rep. Omar's twitter account: https://twitter.com/IlhanMN
**
7. slbinva
"And he let them continue for 13 seconds, according to the New York Times, not 10 seconds, as the article here says. And he when he resumed speaking, he said nothing to indicate that he did not agree with what the crowd was chanting.
One of his toadies said something about it being “just a normal rally chant.” But I guess Goebbels said the same thing about “Sieg Heil!”
****
Twitter Excerpt #3
From https://twitter.com/search?q=istandwithilhan&ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Esearch
[Both of these tweets are from July 18, 2019].
1. Mona Eltahawy, July 18, 2019
Verified account
@monaeltahawy
8h8 hours ago
“Was it a racist chant?”
“The fact that you’re still asking that question is really what’s wrong ... we have said this president is racist ... we have said he is fascist,” @IlhanMN video h/t @rerutled #IStandWithIlhan
**
2. Aliya Khan
@aliyajkhan
5h5 hours ago
“And we are going to continue to be a nightmare to this president because his policies are a nightmare to us.” @IlhanMN #IStandWithIlhan #WelcomeHomeIlhan"
****
SHOWCASE VIDEOS
Example #1:Trump Says He Wasn't Happy About 'Send Her Back' Chants. Is That What the Video Shows?
The Daily Beast,Published on Jul 18, 2019
President Trump waited 13 seconds for the "Send her back!" chants to die down at his North Carolina rally.
#TheDailyBeast #IlhanOmar #PresidentTrump
-snip-
This video includes captions in English.
Here are selected comments from this video's discussion thread (with numbers added for referencing purposes only. All of these comments are from July 18, 2019).
1. jmack619
"He didn't say send her back. He SAID "They can leave" "
**
REPLY
2. ExPFC Wintergreen v2.0
"jmack619 he can incite a mob he can’t control a mob?"
**
REPLY
3. tre artis
"Remember Lock her Up? Trump can easily incite rally chants. “Go back to your country” is an OLD racist trope. It isn’t an offer, it’s a demand."
**
REPLY
4. Seabass Cribel
"jmack619 And then he basked in it as they chanted send her back...."
**
5. SirWins2Much
"Not a fan of trump, still, I gotta side with him. He didn’t oppose or entice, he just waited it out.."
**
REPLY
6. Steven C Highley
"Bullsh&t*.
He holds rallies to attract his stupid hateful base and then he baits them.
He is evil."
-snip-
*This word is fully spelled out in this comment.
**
REPLY
7. Seabass Cribel
"SirWins2Much He tweeted it and I bet he knew they would Chant it. And he obviously basked in it when it happened. A little different than waiting it out".
****
Example #2:Donald Trump supporters chant 'send her back' at rally - BBC News
BBC News, Published on Jul 18, 2019
US Democratic congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, has responded via Twitter after crowds at a presidential rally chanted "send her back."
Donald Trump was cheered at the rally in North Carolina after continuing his attacks on the four non-white Democrat congresswomen, known as "the squad". The chanting resembled those Mr Trump's supporters had chanted against Hillary Clinton during his presidential campaign in 2016.
-snip-
Here are selected comments from this video's discussion thread (with numbers added for referencing purposes only. All of these comments are from July 18, 2019).
1. Marin Angelov
"KKK meetings are now being televised."
**
2. Peter
"When I started watching, I thought for a second they colorized old footage from a Nuremberg Rally"
**
3. robert m.
"Why do I get a sinking feeling that this would be the same type of crowd that would've attended the lynching of a black man in the early 20th century. America has sunk to an all time low politically."
**
4. Wolfie Smith
"OMG. Am a student of History. This just reminds me of the Nuremberg Rallies of Nazi Germany from 1923 to 1938."
**
5. ElfHighMage
"Gives one a fright that so many "American Patriotic Citizens" actually support this level of hate. That's what it is: racism = hate. I can only hope the world watches this and learns from their own hate that America is presenting like a poster child."
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Showing posts with label racist chants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label racist chants. Show all posts
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Friday, July 19, 2019
Article Excerpts About The "Send Her Back" Chant (Trump Rally July 17, 2019)
Edited by Azizi Powell
Latest Revision and Update: July 20, 2019
This pancocojams post presents several article excerpts about the "Send her back" chant that occurred at Trump's July 17, 2019 rally.
An update to this post includes a July 20, 2019 article excerpt about Trump's reversal of his "criticism" about this chant.
The content of this post is presented for historical and socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
Special thanks to Illhan Omar, and the other members of "the Squad" for who they are for what they represent, for what they have accomplished, and for what they have the ability, the will, and the capability to accomplish to make the United States & the world a better place for everyone.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/07/tweets-videos-comments-about-send-her.html for a companion pancocojams post on this subject entitled "Tweets, Videos, & Comments About The "Send Her Back" Chant (Trump Rally July 17, 2019)"
I divided these posts up because I think that together they were too long to read on mobile phones.
****
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
This blog post departs from my decision not to focus on politics in this cultural blog. I have published other posts on this blog on African American protest chants (click the African American protest chant tag for those posts). However, I've mostly stayed away from focusing current American politics (or even mentioning) Trump's name. But reading articles, tweets, and comments about the "Send her home" chant, and afterwards, watching videos of that rally, I feel compelled to document this historical, political, and cultural point.
To be very clear, I'm not being neutral in this post. Instead, the article excerpts, tweets, and the majority of the selected comments were selected which reflect my position as a person who considers the "Send her back" chant to be abhorrent for a number of reasons, and not just I believe that the chant is racist.
Click for an article about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY); Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA); and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), all Representatives to the United States Congress (House) who are informally known as "the Squad" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/who-is-the-squad-what-you-need-to-know-about-aoc-ocasio-cortez-omar-tlaib-pressley/ Who is "the Squad"? What you need to know about Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pressley and Tlaib by Jason Silverstein, July 16, 2019 / 7:40 PM / CBS NEWS
****
ARTICLE EXCERPTS
Article Excerpt #1
From https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-send-her-back-omar_n_5d30d9d1e4b004b6adad306b "GOP Sticks With Trump Following ‘Send Her Back’ Chant
Even an obviously racist refrain couldn’t dislodge Republican fealty to Trump."
By Igor Bobic, POLITICS 07/18/2019 06:23 pm ET
"WASHINGTON ― If you thought that a racist refrain that erupted at a re-election rally for President Donald Trump on Wednesday would be met by quick denouncements from members of the president’s party, you’d once again be completely wrong.
Instead, the day began like so many others had on Capitol Hill when a controversy involving Trump is in the news: Republicans ducked, dodged and sometimes even literally ran from reporters who inquired about it.
[...]
Trump attempted to distance himself from the refrain on Thursday, telling reporters he was “not happy” with the crowd and claimed that he had tried to cut them off from shouting “send her back” at Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). The freshman congresswoman immigrated to the United States as a refugee when she was a child.
In fact, Trump waited 13 seconds, until the chants stopped, to start speaking again. He did not disavow it at the time and continued on with his stump speech. Nor did he delete the racist tweets that the crowd echoed in their chant.
Republican lawmakers were initially hesitant to condemn the chant Thursday morning, stating they could not do so until they’d seen footage of the event. (They often employ that line when a bombastic Trump comment makes headlines). Some defended Trump, arguing that he doesn’t bear responsibility for being unable to control the crowds at his rallies, which are often loud and rambunctious.
“A group of people chanted, he didn’t ask them to chant it. You can’t control that any more than you can control the reaction at a rock concert,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who attended the rally with the president, told HuffPost on Thursday.
[...]
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the lone African American Republican in the Senate, initially said he had “too much going on” to respond to the matter when asked about it Thursday morning. But after the president spoke later in the day, the South Carolina senator had a different response.
“Do I have any concerns? I think the president said he didn’t like the response,” Scott told HuffPost when asked if he was bothered by the chants.”...
-snip-
-selected comments from this article’s discussion thread (with numbers added for referencing purposes only)
All of these comments are from July 18, 2019.
1. Free Cascadiar
“It was the crowd” - after Trump spent most of his speech inciting them, and encouraging them to tell “these people” to go back to their countries.
Why has the Republican party sold their soul for Trumpism? It can’t be a winning strategy in the long run, any more than embracing the John Birch society, or the Klan (yes, I know the Klan was started by what were then Democrats, lets not re-litigate that disingenuous claim).
**
2. Marj Kuhn
"And if you think that trump didn’t plant his posse throughout the crowd to start that chant, you are dumber than dirt."
**
REPLY
3. Courtenay Smith
I noticed that too. The chant seemed to be orchestrated. No mean trick with an audience so large and clueless."
**
4. Donald Trull
"Thom Tillis seems to forget when booing started in reaction to something Obama was saying to a large crowd. Obama took control immediately and said “ Don’t boo...vote”.
**
REPLY
5. Free Cascadia
"And the time John McCain immediately defended his opponent, then-candidate Obama, when a lady called him an Arab."
****
Article Excerpt #2
From https://www.businessinsider.com/ilhan-omar-calls-trump-fascist-after-send-her-back-chant-2019-7 Ilhan Omar calls Trump a 'fascist' after the 'send her back' chant
by John Haltiwanger, July 18, 2019
"Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar on Thursday had strong words for President Donald Trump after the president's supporters at a rally on Wednesday chanted "send her back" in reference to the Minnesota lawmaker.
Omar called Trump a "fascist" and a "racist."
"This is not about me — this is about us fighting for what this country truly should be," she added.
Trump on Thursday said he was "not happy" about the chant, but he paused and allowed it to continue during the rally, offering no objections.
The chant went on for about 13 seconds before Trump started speaking again.
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar said President Donald Trump was a "racist" and "fascist" a day after he falsely accused her of supporting Al Qaeda and looked on as the crowd at a rally in North Carolina chanted "send her back."
"I believe he is fascist," Omar told reporters on Thursday.
The Minnesota lawmaker, who is a naturalized US citizen, said America is "supposed to be a country where we allow democratic debate and dissent to take place."
"This is not about me — this is about us fighting for what this country truly should be," she added.”...
****
Article Excerpt #3
From https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/individual-1-is-self-destructing/19390/
Individual 1 is self destructing
by Bill Palmer | 9:10 pm EDT July 18, 2019
"This morning the Feds at the SDNY finally made official what we all already knew: the “Individual 1” who directed Michael Cohen to commit campaign finance felonies is indeed Donald Trump.... No charges are being filed against anyone, but that could be simply because they want to wait until Trump is out of office and file all the conspiracy charges at once.
In the meantime, Individual 1 is self destructing in real time. Over the weekend he told four non-white Democratic Congresswomen to “go back” to where they came from. Then he told them that “YOU CAN LEAVE” in all caps, just so no one would miss it. Then he hurled even more racist hate speech at Congresswoman Ilhan Omar last night, prompting his racist supporters to begin chanting “send her back.” It was so over-the-top racist, it caused GOP leaders to worry about what this will do to their 2020 prospects, forcing Trump to pretend to disavow the chant today.
At this point it’s no longer even clear – not to us, and maybe not even to Trump himself – what he’s trying to distract us from. His week long racist tirade started off as a calculated distraction, but he’s taken it far beyond anything that could have helped him. Now it’s just another problem for him. Was he trying to distract us from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal? That’s about to explode. Was he trying to distract from what he knew the SDNY would reveal today? Was he trying to make us forget that he has kids locked in cages?"...
****
Article Excerpt #4
From https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/18/politics/eeoc-donald-trump-racist-tweets-harassment-trnd/index.html "Federal employment agency says telling people to 'go back to where you came from' can be workplace harassment" By Devan Cole, CNN, Updated 10:23 AM ET, Thu July
"A federal agency charged with enforcing laws prohibiting workplace discrimination cites "go back to where you came from" as a remark that may constitute unlawful harassment based on national origin.
[...]
"Ethnic slurs and other verbal or physical conduct because of nationality are illegal if they are severe or pervasive and create an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment, interfere with work performance, or negatively affect job opportunities," the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission states in a passage on its website.
"Examples of potentially unlawful conduct include insults, taunting, or ethnic epithets, such as making fun of a person's foreign accent or comments like, 'Go back to where you came from,' whether made by supervisors or by co-workers," the passage reads.
On Monday, a day after Trump made his tweets, the EEOC tweeted about how an employee can submit a charge of discrimination, prompting some Twitter users to link the President's tweets to the regulations."...
****
UPDATE: July 20, 2019
Article Excerpt #5
From https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-reverses-send-her-back-crowd-patriots_n_5d331d8ce4b004b6adb080d4
"WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has reversed his previous criticisms of a North Carolina campaign crowd that chanted “send her back” about a Somali-born congresswoman.
Trump on Friday defended the rally-goers as “patriots” while again questioning the loyalty of four Democratic lawmakers of color. His comments marked a return to a pattern that has become familiar during controversies of his own making: ignite a firestorm, backtrack, then strongly reaffirm his original, inflammatory position.
When reporters at the White House asked if he was unhappy with the Wednesday night crowd, Trump responded: “Those are incredible people. They are incredible patriots. But I’m unhappy when a congresswoman goes and says, ‘I’m going to be the president’s nightmare.’”
It was another dizzying twist in a saga sparked by the president’s racist tweets about Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who moved from Somalia as a child, and her colleagues Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
The moment took an ugly turn at the rally when the crowd’s “send her back” shouts resounded for 13 seconds as Trump made no attempt to interrupt them. He paused in his speech and surveyed the scene, taking in the uproar, though the next day he claimed he did not approve of the chant and tried to stop it.
But on Friday, he made clear he was not disavowing the chant and again laced into Omar, the target of the chant."...
****
Article Excerpt #6
From https://www.huffpost.com/entry/padma-lakshmi-send-her-back-chants-op-ed-trump_n_5d332958e4b020cd994425f6 Padma Lakshmi: ‘Send Her Back’ Chants ‘Stabbed Me Right In The Heart’ by Amy Russo 07/20/2019 12:49 pm ET
The “Top Chef” host said Donald Trump’s “dog-whistling” has become a “battle cry.”
"In a Washington Post op-ed, [Padma] Lakshmi said the bigotry espoused by Trump’s supporters was a reminder of the past.
“Those words, those hurtful, xenophobic, entitled words that I’ve heard all throughout my childhood, stabbed me right in the heart,” she wrote. “They echoed the unshakable feeling that most brown immigrants feel. Regardless of what we do, regardless of how much we assimilate and contribute, we are never truly American enough because our names sound funny, our skin isn’t white, or our grandmothers live in a different country.”
The same day Lakshmi’s op-ed was published, Trump defended the rallygoers as “incredible patriots,” backpedaling on his previous attempt to distance himself from the chant. He had said Thursday that he was “not happy with it” and disagreed with his supporters.
Lakshmi warned that the situation has become “Charlottesville 2.0,” referring to the 2017 white supremacist rally that turned deadly when a neo-Nazi drove his car into a crowd and killed counterprotester Heather Heyer. After the violence, Trump infamously claimed there were “very fine people on both sides.”
“He has long been dog-whistling to white nationalists, and as he ramps up for 2020, that whistle has become a battle cry,” Lakshmi wrote.
Lakshmi, who recalled coming to the U.S. with her single mother, also pointed out a fact continually cited by critics of Trump’s xenophobia: His own family contains immigrants.
“The president is himself a second-generation American,” she wrote. “Two of the women he has married are immigrants, but the only difference between them and Omar ― and myself ― is skin color. It’s clear that Trump equates being American with being white. But he doesn’t have the right to judge the Americanness of any of us.”...
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Latest Revision and Update: July 20, 2019
This pancocojams post presents several article excerpts about the "Send her back" chant that occurred at Trump's July 17, 2019 rally.
An update to this post includes a July 20, 2019 article excerpt about Trump's reversal of his "criticism" about this chant.
The content of this post is presented for historical and socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
Special thanks to Illhan Omar, and the other members of "the Squad" for who they are for what they represent, for what they have accomplished, and for what they have the ability, the will, and the capability to accomplish to make the United States & the world a better place for everyone.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2019/07/tweets-videos-comments-about-send-her.html for a companion pancocojams post on this subject entitled "Tweets, Videos, & Comments About The "Send Her Back" Chant (Trump Rally July 17, 2019)"
I divided these posts up because I think that together they were too long to read on mobile phones.
****
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
This blog post departs from my decision not to focus on politics in this cultural blog. I have published other posts on this blog on African American protest chants (click the African American protest chant tag for those posts). However, I've mostly stayed away from focusing current American politics (or even mentioning) Trump's name. But reading articles, tweets, and comments about the "Send her home" chant, and afterwards, watching videos of that rally, I feel compelled to document this historical, political, and cultural point.
To be very clear, I'm not being neutral in this post. Instead, the article excerpts, tweets, and the majority of the selected comments were selected which reflect my position as a person who considers the "Send her back" chant to be abhorrent for a number of reasons, and not just I believe that the chant is racist.
Click for an article about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY); Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA); and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), all Representatives to the United States Congress (House) who are informally known as "the Squad" https://www.cbsnews.com/news/who-is-the-squad-what-you-need-to-know-about-aoc-ocasio-cortez-omar-tlaib-pressley/ Who is "the Squad"? What you need to know about Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pressley and Tlaib by Jason Silverstein, July 16, 2019 / 7:40 PM / CBS NEWS
****
ARTICLE EXCERPTS
Article Excerpt #1
From https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-send-her-back-omar_n_5d30d9d1e4b004b6adad306b "GOP Sticks With Trump Following ‘Send Her Back’ Chant
Even an obviously racist refrain couldn’t dislodge Republican fealty to Trump."
By Igor Bobic, POLITICS 07/18/2019 06:23 pm ET
"WASHINGTON ― If you thought that a racist refrain that erupted at a re-election rally for President Donald Trump on Wednesday would be met by quick denouncements from members of the president’s party, you’d once again be completely wrong.
Instead, the day began like so many others had on Capitol Hill when a controversy involving Trump is in the news: Republicans ducked, dodged and sometimes even literally ran from reporters who inquired about it.
[...]
Trump attempted to distance himself from the refrain on Thursday, telling reporters he was “not happy” with the crowd and claimed that he had tried to cut them off from shouting “send her back” at Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). The freshman congresswoman immigrated to the United States as a refugee when she was a child.
In fact, Trump waited 13 seconds, until the chants stopped, to start speaking again. He did not disavow it at the time and continued on with his stump speech. Nor did he delete the racist tweets that the crowd echoed in their chant.
Republican lawmakers were initially hesitant to condemn the chant Thursday morning, stating they could not do so until they’d seen footage of the event. (They often employ that line when a bombastic Trump comment makes headlines). Some defended Trump, arguing that he doesn’t bear responsibility for being unable to control the crowds at his rallies, which are often loud and rambunctious.
“A group of people chanted, he didn’t ask them to chant it. You can’t control that any more than you can control the reaction at a rock concert,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who attended the rally with the president, told HuffPost on Thursday.
[...]
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), the lone African American Republican in the Senate, initially said he had “too much going on” to respond to the matter when asked about it Thursday morning. But after the president spoke later in the day, the South Carolina senator had a different response.
“Do I have any concerns? I think the president said he didn’t like the response,” Scott told HuffPost when asked if he was bothered by the chants.”...
-snip-
-selected comments from this article’s discussion thread (with numbers added for referencing purposes only)
All of these comments are from July 18, 2019.
1. Free Cascadiar
“It was the crowd” - after Trump spent most of his speech inciting them, and encouraging them to tell “these people” to go back to their countries.
Why has the Republican party sold their soul for Trumpism? It can’t be a winning strategy in the long run, any more than embracing the John Birch society, or the Klan (yes, I know the Klan was started by what were then Democrats, lets not re-litigate that disingenuous claim).
**
2. Marj Kuhn
"And if you think that trump didn’t plant his posse throughout the crowd to start that chant, you are dumber than dirt."
**
REPLY
3. Courtenay Smith
I noticed that too. The chant seemed to be orchestrated. No mean trick with an audience so large and clueless."
**
4. Donald Trull
"Thom Tillis seems to forget when booing started in reaction to something Obama was saying to a large crowd. Obama took control immediately and said “ Don’t boo...vote”.
**
REPLY
5. Free Cascadia
"And the time John McCain immediately defended his opponent, then-candidate Obama, when a lady called him an Arab."
****
Article Excerpt #2
From https://www.businessinsider.com/ilhan-omar-calls-trump-fascist-after-send-her-back-chant-2019-7 Ilhan Omar calls Trump a 'fascist' after the 'send her back' chant
by John Haltiwanger, July 18, 2019
"Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar on Thursday had strong words for President Donald Trump after the president's supporters at a rally on Wednesday chanted "send her back" in reference to the Minnesota lawmaker.
Omar called Trump a "fascist" and a "racist."
"This is not about me — this is about us fighting for what this country truly should be," she added.
Trump on Thursday said he was "not happy" about the chant, but he paused and allowed it to continue during the rally, offering no objections.
The chant went on for about 13 seconds before Trump started speaking again.
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar said President Donald Trump was a "racist" and "fascist" a day after he falsely accused her of supporting Al Qaeda and looked on as the crowd at a rally in North Carolina chanted "send her back."
"I believe he is fascist," Omar told reporters on Thursday.
The Minnesota lawmaker, who is a naturalized US citizen, said America is "supposed to be a country where we allow democratic debate and dissent to take place."
"This is not about me — this is about us fighting for what this country truly should be," she added.”...
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Article Excerpt #3
From https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/individual-1-is-self-destructing/19390/
Individual 1 is self destructing
by Bill Palmer | 9:10 pm EDT July 18, 2019
"This morning the Feds at the SDNY finally made official what we all already knew: the “Individual 1” who directed Michael Cohen to commit campaign finance felonies is indeed Donald Trump.... No charges are being filed against anyone, but that could be simply because they want to wait until Trump is out of office and file all the conspiracy charges at once.
In the meantime, Individual 1 is self destructing in real time. Over the weekend he told four non-white Democratic Congresswomen to “go back” to where they came from. Then he told them that “YOU CAN LEAVE” in all caps, just so no one would miss it. Then he hurled even more racist hate speech at Congresswoman Ilhan Omar last night, prompting his racist supporters to begin chanting “send her back.” It was so over-the-top racist, it caused GOP leaders to worry about what this will do to their 2020 prospects, forcing Trump to pretend to disavow the chant today.
At this point it’s no longer even clear – not to us, and maybe not even to Trump himself – what he’s trying to distract us from. His week long racist tirade started off as a calculated distraction, but he’s taken it far beyond anything that could have helped him. Now it’s just another problem for him. Was he trying to distract us from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal? That’s about to explode. Was he trying to distract from what he knew the SDNY would reveal today? Was he trying to make us forget that he has kids locked in cages?"...
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Article Excerpt #4
From https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/18/politics/eeoc-donald-trump-racist-tweets-harassment-trnd/index.html "Federal employment agency says telling people to 'go back to where you came from' can be workplace harassment" By Devan Cole, CNN, Updated 10:23 AM ET, Thu July
"A federal agency charged with enforcing laws prohibiting workplace discrimination cites "go back to where you came from" as a remark that may constitute unlawful harassment based on national origin.
[...]
"Ethnic slurs and other verbal or physical conduct because of nationality are illegal if they are severe or pervasive and create an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment, interfere with work performance, or negatively affect job opportunities," the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission states in a passage on its website.
"Examples of potentially unlawful conduct include insults, taunting, or ethnic epithets, such as making fun of a person's foreign accent or comments like, 'Go back to where you came from,' whether made by supervisors or by co-workers," the passage reads.
On Monday, a day after Trump made his tweets, the EEOC tweeted about how an employee can submit a charge of discrimination, prompting some Twitter users to link the President's tweets to the regulations."...
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UPDATE: July 20, 2019
Article Excerpt #5
From https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-reverses-send-her-back-crowd-patriots_n_5d331d8ce4b004b6adb080d4
"WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has reversed his previous criticisms of a North Carolina campaign crowd that chanted “send her back” about a Somali-born congresswoman.
Trump on Friday defended the rally-goers as “patriots” while again questioning the loyalty of four Democratic lawmakers of color. His comments marked a return to a pattern that has become familiar during controversies of his own making: ignite a firestorm, backtrack, then strongly reaffirm his original, inflammatory position.
When reporters at the White House asked if he was unhappy with the Wednesday night crowd, Trump responded: “Those are incredible people. They are incredible patriots. But I’m unhappy when a congresswoman goes and says, ‘I’m going to be the president’s nightmare.’”
It was another dizzying twist in a saga sparked by the president’s racist tweets about Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who moved from Somalia as a child, and her colleagues Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
The moment took an ugly turn at the rally when the crowd’s “send her back” shouts resounded for 13 seconds as Trump made no attempt to interrupt them. He paused in his speech and surveyed the scene, taking in the uproar, though the next day he claimed he did not approve of the chant and tried to stop it.
But on Friday, he made clear he was not disavowing the chant and again laced into Omar, the target of the chant."...
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Article Excerpt #6
From https://www.huffpost.com/entry/padma-lakshmi-send-her-back-chants-op-ed-trump_n_5d332958e4b020cd994425f6 Padma Lakshmi: ‘Send Her Back’ Chants ‘Stabbed Me Right In The Heart’ by Amy Russo 07/20/2019 12:49 pm ET
The “Top Chef” host said Donald Trump’s “dog-whistling” has become a “battle cry.”
"In a Washington Post op-ed, [Padma] Lakshmi said the bigotry espoused by Trump’s supporters was a reminder of the past.
“Those words, those hurtful, xenophobic, entitled words that I’ve heard all throughout my childhood, stabbed me right in the heart,” she wrote. “They echoed the unshakable feeling that most brown immigrants feel. Regardless of what we do, regardless of how much we assimilate and contribute, we are never truly American enough because our names sound funny, our skin isn’t white, or our grandmothers live in a different country.”
The same day Lakshmi’s op-ed was published, Trump defended the rallygoers as “incredible patriots,” backpedaling on his previous attempt to distance himself from the chant. He had said Thursday that he was “not happy with it” and disagreed with his supporters.
Lakshmi warned that the situation has become “Charlottesville 2.0,” referring to the 2017 white supremacist rally that turned deadly when a neo-Nazi drove his car into a crowd and killed counterprotester Heather Heyer. After the violence, Trump infamously claimed there were “very fine people on both sides.”
“He has long been dog-whistling to white nationalists, and as he ramps up for 2020, that whistle has become a battle cry,” Lakshmi wrote.
Lakshmi, who recalled coming to the U.S. with her single mother, also pointed out a fact continually cited by critics of Trump’s xenophobia: His own family contains immigrants.
“The president is himself a second-generation American,” she wrote. “Two of the women he has married are immigrants, but the only difference between them and Omar ― and myself ― is skin color. It’s clear that Trump equates being American with being white. But he doesn’t have the right to judge the Americanness of any of us.”...
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