US President Donald Trump has sought to distance himself from supporters who erupted into a chant of “send her back” about Somali-American Congresswoman Ilhan Omar at a Wednesday rally, saying he “disagreed” with their sentiments.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trump addressed the ferocious backlash that followed the scene at the rally in North Carolina, saying he “felt a little bit badly about it,” but adding that he was not the one who started it.

“I would say that I was not happy with it. I disagreed with it. But again, I didn’t say that. They did.” he said.



Asked why he did not try to stop the chanters, Trump said he thought he had. “I think I did – I started speaking very quickly.” Video from the event, however, shows that Trump actually stopped speaking and allowed the chanting to get more intense, before beginning to address the crowd again.

Trump Today: I did tell my supporters to stop chanting ‘Send Her Back!’ “I started speaking very quickly...I was not happy with it.”We now go to video of Trump quickly telling his supporters last night to stop their racist chants... pic.twitter.com/P5pSBBeRVB — Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) July 18, 2019

Trump advised reporters to go to North Carolina and ask his supporters why they had said what they did – but the chant was strikingly in line with comments Trump himself made last week, tweeting that Omar and her ‘squad’ of four freshman Democratic colleagues should “go back” to fix the “crime infested places from which they came.”

Even during the North Carolina speech, Trump had suggested multiple times that if the congresswomen were unhappy with aspects of the USA, they could simply leave. The so-called ‘squad’ have been highly critical of Trump’s border control and immigration policies, among other things, and have multiple times accused him of racism.

The anti-Omar chant was reminiscent of the cries of “Lock her up” which targeted Trump's opponent Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign.

Also on rt.com Ilhan Omar brands Trump ‘FASCIST’ after ‘send her back’ chants at his rally

Approached by reporters on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Omar in turn branded Trump a “fascist” and said the US was supposed to be a country where people “allow Democratic debate and dissent” to take place. “This is not about me, this is about us fighting for what this country truly should be,” she said.

Trump’s comments have provoked a wave of fury among Democrats and even among a few Republicans, who have condemned him for the “racist” language.

Trump has denied that his language is racist, saying that he doesn't have a ”racist bone” in his body.

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