Rep. Tom Emmer has become the latest Washington Republican to express discomfort with the behavior of the party’s base voters in the Trump era. | Stephen Maturen/Getty Images Politics House Republican campaign chairman says there's no place for 'send her back' language

The chairman of House Republicans’ campaign arm on Thursday criticized the “send her back” chant that animated the crowd at Donald Trump’s Wednesday night rally and added a dimension to the president’s attacks on four Democratic freshman women.

“I didn’t watch the rally last night, but there’s no place for that kind of talk,” said Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), who heads up the National Republican Congressional Committee and hails from the same state as the Democrat who was primarily targeted, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). “I don’t agree with it.”


Emmer, speaking at a breakfast with journalists hosted by The Christian Science Monitor, was pressed later whether the chant was racist. He declined to address that question, instead saying it was “not acceptable.”

Emmer also stopped short of directly criticizing Trump for his comments about Omar and three other Democratic lawmakers, all of whom are women of color, calling the controversy “manufactured.”

Trump wrote on Twitter this past weekend that the four women should “go back” to where they came from — even though the three other progressive lawmakers, Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, were all born in the United States.

“There’s not a racist bone in this president’s body,” Emmer said. “What he was trying to say, he said wrong. What he was trying to say is that if you don’t appreciate this country, you don’t have to be here. That goes for every one of us. That has nothing to do with your race, your gender, your family history. It has to do with respecting and loving your country.”

Emmer, who took over the NRCC in the days after Republicans lost their eight-year House majority, signaled that the committee would seek to tie Democratic members in swing districts — even those with moderate voting records — with the four women and other Democrats who represent what he called “a new Red Army of socialists.”

On one hand, Emmer became the latest Washington Republican to express discomfort with the behavior of the party’s base voters in the Trump era. But he also made no apologies for his committee’s combative tone in characterizing Democrats as far-left socialists.

“Our mission this cycle is to take back the majority, and I think we have a clear message on how to do that,” he said.

Trump’s rally was held in Greenville, N.C. — home to a special election for a solidly Republican House seat this fall. Emmer expressed confidence that the party would not only win that race, but also a key, do-over election on the other side of the state being held on the same day. A victory in that North Carolina race would boost to Republicans’ efforts to turn the page after last year’s midterm elections.

“We will win North Carolina-09,” Emmer said.

