Just one day after trying to distance himself from supporters’ chants of “Send her back” in reference to Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, Donald Trump was back to his old ways, doubling down on his attacks on Omar and three other freshman congresswoman of color and defending his folks.
“Those are incredible people. Those are incredible patriots,” Trump said Friday of the MAGA faithful that turned out for his rally in Greenville, N.C., Wednesday night, according to the Washington Post.
And rather than repeat his Thursday claims about being “unhappy” with his supporters for clamoring for the expulsion of an American of Somali descent, Trump told his truth said what really “made him unhappy”: Omar and the three other freshman congresswoman of color he’s been targeting for the last week—Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.).
As the Post reports, Trump said of Omar:
“You know what I’m unhappy with — the fact that a congresswoman can hate our country. I’m unhappy with the fact that a congresswoman can say anti-Semitic things.”
Trump has provided no evidence that Omar ever said she hates the United States, and earlier this week she said, “I probably love this country more than anyone that is naturally born.”
In tweets earlier Friday, Trump characterized media coverage of his rally in Greenville, N.C., as “crazed” and complained that media was “totally calm & accepting” of what he said were “vile and disgusting statements” made by Omar and three other minority congresswomen that he has repeatedly criticized in recent days.
Trump apparently was also big mad that news media bothered to report the fact that when Omar “went back” home—to the great, exotic state of Minnesota—hundreds turned out at the airport to greet her with cheers of “Welcome home, Ilhan!”
He continued to fume, even as he prepared to leave the White House for another golf weekend at his club in Bedminster, N.J.
As Reuters reports, Trump said just because the four congresswomen have First Amendment rights, doesn’t mean he has to like it.
“Yeah, they have First Amendment rights, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy about them...” he said. “And again, we have First Amendment rights also - we can certainly feel what and say what we want.”
Well, like or not, Trump and his ilk better get used to it, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Friday, because she, her colleagues, and all they represent ain’t going nowhere:
The GOP wants to send us back:
Back towards injustice,
Back to the denial of science,
Back to the times when women needed permission slips from men,
Back to racism -
But we won’t go back.
We will move forward.