US Representative Ilhan Omar on Thursday branded US President Donald Trump a “fascist” as Trump sought to distance himself from mocking chants of “send her back” directed at the Somalia-born lawmaker by his supporters.
“We have said this president is racist, we have condemned his racist remarks,” said Omar, one of two Muslim women in the US Congress. “I believe he is fascist.”
Chants of “send her back” broke out at Trump’s “Make America Great Again” rally in Greenville, North Carolina, on Wednesday night when he attacked Omar and three other ethnic-minority female Democratics known as the “Squad.”
Photo: AP
Omar on Thursday received a very different reception when she returned home to Minnesota and was greeted by crowds of supporters at the airport.
The president’s “nightmare is seeing a Somali immigrant refugee rise to Congress,” she said through a megaphone, to shouts of support. “We are going to continue to be a nightmare to this president, because his policies are a nightmare to us.”
Trump on Thursday said to reporters in the Oval Office that there was “great energy” at his earlier rally, but he was not pleased by the taunts.
“I was not happy when I heard that chant,” he said. “I didn’t like that they did it and I started speaking quickly.”
However, television footage showed that Trump let the chant continue for more than 10 seconds before he resumed speaking.
In a rare move, the Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives on Tuesday rebuked Trump for “racist comments” after he said the four should “go back” to their nations of origin if they are not happy in the US, but he made it clear at the rally that without a Democratic presidential candidate to focus on yet, he plans to make inflammatory attacks on Omar and her three fellow left-leaning Democrats a centerpiece of his re-election strategy.
The first-term lawmakers — all but one of whom, Omar, were born in the US — are of Hispanic, Arabic, Somalian and African-American descent.
To the delight of his thousands of supporters in Greenville, Trump described Omar and the other three as “left-wing ideologues [who] see our nation as a force of evil.”
“A vote for any Democrat in 2020 is a vote for the rise of radical socialism and the destruction of the American Dream — frankly the destruction of our country,” Trump said.
The crowd responded to his attacks with cries of “send her back,” reminiscent of the “lock her up” chants directed in 2016 at Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Some Republicans have urged Trump to tone down the rhetoric, but the president clearly believes — despite the risk of inflaming racial tensions and widening the partisan divide — that he has latched on to a winning strategy.
Trump tapped into grievances among white blue-collar and rural Americans to eke out a narrow victory in 2016 and he is hoping to do the same again next year.
“He’s rallying his base,” said Wendy Schiller, a professor of political science at Brown University. “He thinks this is a way to get them riled up now.”
Trump won 57 percent of white voters in 2016, while Clinton won 37 percent.
About 70 percent of the electorate next year is expected to be white. African-Americans, Hispanics and other minorities account for the rest and tend to vote Democrat.
Several of the Democratic presidential hopefuls condemned Trump’s remarks.
“It’s vile. It’s cowardly. It’s xenophobic. It’s racist,” US Senator Kamala Harris said.
“These members of Congress — children of immigrants, just like so many of us — are an example of exactly what makes America great,” former US vice president Joe Biden said.
Trump’s remarks also came in for criticism from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who called them “hurtful,” and European Council President Donald Tusk, who said the comments were “totally unacceptable.”
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
RSS