Trump Can’t Just Walk Away From ‘Send Her Back’
There’s a reason the president can’t bring himself to condemn a bigoted chant.
It’s a pattern.
Photographer: Zach Gibson/Getty Images
Last Sunday, President Donald Trump suggested that four Democratic congresswomen of color, three of whom were born in the U.S., “go back” to their ancestors’ countries. Despite a broad public outcry about the leader of the free world unleashing a timeworn racist trope, Trump refused to apologize or back away from his comments.
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives voted to condemn Trump for “racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color.” The president stood his ground. A day later, he presided over an unsettling and ominous political rally in North Carolina during which the crowd started chanting “send her back” after he singled out Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat and a Somali immigrant, as unpatriotic.