Trump slams congresswomen; crowd roars, ‘Send her back!’
GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Going after four Democratic congresswomen one by one, a combative President Donald Trump turned his campaign rally Wednesday into an extended dissection of the liberal views of the women of color, deriding them for what he painted as extreme positions and suggesting they just get out.
“Tonight I have a suggestion for the hate-filled extremists who are constantly trying to tear our country down,” Trump told the crowd in North Carolina, a swing state he won in 2016 and wants to claim again in 2020. “They never have anything good to say. That’s why I say, ‘Hey if you don’t like it, let ’em leave, let ’em leave.’”
Eager to rile up his base with the some of the same
kind of rhetoric he targeted at minorities and women in 2016, Trump
declared, “I think in some cases they hate our country.”
Trump’s
jabs were aimed at the self-described “squad” of four freshmen Democrats
who have garnered attention since their arrival in January for their
outspoken liberal views and distaste for Trump: Reps. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of
Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. All were born in the U.S.
except for Omar, who came to the U.S. as a child after fleeing Somalia
with her family.
Taking the legislators on one at a time, Trump
ticked through a laundry list of what he deemed offensive comments by
each woman, mangling and misconstruing many facts along the way.
Omar
came under the harshest criticism as Trump played to voters’
grievances, drawing a chant from the crowd of “Send her back! Send her
back!”
Trump set off a firestorm Sunday when he tweeted that the
four should “go back” to their home countries — though three were born
in the United States. Trump has accused them of “spewing some of the
most vile, hateful and disgusting things ever said by a politician.”
Before
he left Washington, Trump said he has no regrets about his ongoing spat
with the four. Trump told reporters he thinks he’s “winning the
political argument” and “winning it by a lot.”
“If people want to
leave our country, they can. If they don’t want to love our country, if
they don’t want to fight for our country, they can,” Trump said. “I’ll
never change on that.”
Trump’s harsh denunciations were another
sign of his willingness to exploit the nation’s racial divisions heading
into the 2020 campaign.
His speech was filled with Trump’s
trademark criticisms about the news media, which he says sides with
liberals, and of special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
Mueller had been scheduled to testify Wednesday on Capitol Hill, but it
was postponed. Trump brought him up anyway. “What happened to me with
this witch hunt should never be allowed to happen to another president,”
he said.
He also talked about illegal immigration, a main theme
of his first presidential bid that is taking center stage in his
re-election campaign. He brushed off the criticism he has gotten for
saying that the congresswomen should go back home. “So controversial,”
he said sarcastically.
The four freshmen have portrayed the
president as a bully who wants to “vilify” not only immigrants, but all
people of color. They say they are fighting for their priorities to
lower health care costs and pass a Green New Deal addressing climate
change, while his thundering attacks are a distraction and tear at the
core of America values.
The Democratic-led U.S. House voted
Tuesday to condemn Trump for what it labeled “racist comments,” despite
near-solid GOP opposition and the president’s own insistence that he
doesn’t have a “racist bone” in his body.
Trump hasn’t shown signs
of being rattled by the House rebuke, and called an impeachment
resolution that failed in Congress earlier Wednesday “ridiculous.” The
condemnation carries no legal repercussions and his latest harangues
struck a chord with supporter in Greenville, whose chants of “Four more
years!” and “Build that wall!” bounced off the rafters.
Vice
President Mike Pence was first up after spending the day in
Fayetteville, North Carolina, and visiting troops at Fort Bragg. “North
Carolina and America needs four more years,” Pence said.
It was
Trump’s sixth visit to the state as president and his first 2020
campaign event in North Carolina, where he defeated Democratic nominee
Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Before Trump arrived, Wayne Goodwin,
chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party, spoke at a rally in
Greenville and called Trump “just another corrupt snake oil salesman.”
“From
sparking a harmful trade war that puts our farmers in the crosshairs,
to giving corporations a billion-dollar giveaway at the expense of our
middle class, to repeatedly pushing to end protections for pre-existing
conditions and raise health care costs, his broken promises have hurt
hard-working families across North Carolina,” Goodwin said.