Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris said it is obvious and not debatable that the crowd chanting "send her back" about Rep. Ilham Omar (D-MN) at President Trump's MAGA rally last night was created by Trump's tweets and not the audience.



"The chant was created, not by the crowd, but by the president’s tweets. And that’s obvious... it’s really not a debatable point and I think," Harris said in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday.





JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Joining me now on the phone is Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Kamala Harris of California. Senator, thanks so much for fitting us in between your busy campaigning. President Trump today is now claiming that he tried to stop those chants and even though he didn’t try to stop those chants, he’s also saying that he disagreed with them. What do you make of it all?



SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I do think they’re empty words, Jake. You know, the chant was created, not by the crowd, but by the president’s tweets. And that’s obvious that it’s -- you know, it’s really not a debatable point and I think it’s just (INAUDIBLE) -- clearly not a sign of real leadership. I think you have mentioned it; your guests have mentioned it. Contrast it with a real American leader like John McCain, who during the campaign in 2008 -- he stood up, he spoke up. He was, you know, he understood, as an American hero, that the voice of someone who wants to be, much less is the President of The United States, must be a voice that is about elevating discourse that is about speaking to our better selves. And this president just keeps finding new lows. And you know, I would like to say it’s shocking, but at some point -- it’s sadly predictable.



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But it just keeps getting worse.



TAPPER: What was your response to the rally? I assume you were not watching it live and somebody must have brought you images of it. What --



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HARRIS: Yeah, I heard about it.



TAPPER: What was your response?



HARRIS: Well, it’s just -- I mean first of all, look -- it’s the same thing. He obviously is working out of the playbook that he’s used to get elected. Right? And again, focusing on the negative, focusing on divisions and you know, look -- you know what I think is great? I think what is so great about today is in contrast what he did at that rally with what the Democrats just did, passing out of the House a $15 minimum wage -- and I think that is the kind of thing that the American people will be aware of and they will see, which is one group is trying to put money in people’s pockets.



Meanwhile, this president is busy trying to sell hate and division among us. And what he’s doing -- I’ve been traveling our country; I am campaigning. I am putting a lot of time in the beautiful diversity of America and I will tell you something. This does not make people feel good. They don’t like it. It is not reflective of who they are and what’s in their hearts.



And you know, this is the other thing about real leadership. Real leadership should be some reflection on where people actually are. You know, we can disagree about policies and issues, but this is a fundamental point, which is who we are as Americans; our identity as Americans -- in terms of our compassion for each other (INAUDIBLE) valuing that out of many come one.



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This guy doesn’t get it.



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He doesn’t get it.



TAPPER: You’re the child of an Indian immigrant and a Jamaican immigrant. Has anyone ever said anything like go back where you came from to you or to your sister or to your parents?



HARRIS: Of course, yes. And you know, I was just -- I was just at an event in Iowa two days ago, in Davenport, Iowa and it was when all of this was fresh, and I’m you know, as like many of us, were upset about it, we were shocked that it happened.



And I asked the crowd, just spontaneously, I said, who here has heard them? And a number of hands went up and it’s not just the children of immigrants or immigrants, it’s African Americans, you know, (INAUDIBLE) go back to Africa -- this is not new. This is part -- that he is reviving dark chapters. He is reviving those moments that have not been the best, but in fact have been the worst of who we are and I’ll tell you, Jake --



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When, at that event I brought this up; part of what can tell me to speak the way I did is -- the person before me who spoke was a woman who talked about how this was making her children feel.



And that again, we want to talk about the measure of the leader. When you make children afraid, you are not a good person. You are not a good person. And that’s what this president continually does. So his words create a moment where there’s a chance -- God only knows what that creates on a school ground. We just saw recently what it created in some convenience store in Illinois. People take, they take cues from the president because the president has a powerful microphone.