President Donald Trump slammed Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the members of ‘squad’ at his campaign rally Wednesday night with supporters responding with shouts of ‘send her back, send her back.’
While the president raged against all four lawmakers who make up the squad individually – and railed against several of the Democratic presidential contenders – it was Omar, who is a frequent target of his ire, who bore the brunt of his criticism.
Trump accused Omar, a Somalian refugee who became an American citizen, of blaming terrorists attacks on our country.
‘She smeared U.S. Service members involved in Black Hawk Down,’ he said referring to the failed 1993 raid in Mogadishu by the U.S. military.
‘In other words, she slandered the brave Americans were trying to keep peace in Somalia. Omar minimized the September 11th attacks on our homeland saying some people did something,’ he added.
And, he charged, ‘Omar has a history of launching vicious anti-semitic’ attacks. ‘She talked about the evil is real, and it’s all about the Benjamin’s,’ Trump charged.
‘Send her back, send her back,’ the crowd roared – a reference to Trump’s tweet on Sunday where he suggested the members of the ‘squad’ should go ‘back where they came from’ if they were unhappy. The House voted on Tuesday to condemn his words as racist.
President Trump slammed members of the ‘squad’ at his campaign rally
The members of the ‘squad’: Representatives Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Trump railed against several of his rivals at his rally Wednesday night – his first since formally kicking off his 2020 re-election bid
Omar was born in Mogadishu but she and her family left the country in 1990 to escape the war there.
Trump used past controversial comments of Omar against her during his speech, referring to her suggestion last march that some supporters of Israel were in it for the money, tweeting it was ‘all about the benjamins.’
And she also appeared to minimize the September 11 attacks when she noted a Muslim group was formed in its wake ‘because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.’
Omar told CBS News in an interview that aired Wednesday she didn’t regret her comments but emphasized she is not anti-semitic.
She responded to his comments at his rally by tweeting a verse from the poet Maya Angelou: ‘You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise. -Maya Angelou’
The president used his campaign rally as a bully pulpit on Wednesday to hammer his political rivals on a litany of charges.
The crowd ate it up, repeatedly cheering him on and calling for ‘four more years, four more years.’
‘You’re the man Trump,’ one supporter cheered.
‘We love you,’ shouted another.
The crowd waved ‘Women for Trump,’ ‘Keep America Great,’ and ‘Trump Keep American Great 2020’ signs and donned red Make America Great Again hats.
A sea of red, white and blue greeted the president’s arrival on stage with the crowd whooping and hollering like they were greeting a rock star.
‘USA, USA, USA,’ they greeted Trump as he strode on stage for his first campaign rally since he formally kicked off his 2020 re-election campaign last month.
The rally was the first time Trump addressed supporters since he suggested the Democratic lawmakers go ‘back where they came from.’
The president signaled earlier Wednesday he would be going after the ‘squad’ – Omar, Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley – and he stuck to his warning.
The crowd repeated ‘booed’ the lawmakers – all of whom are racial minorities – as Trump railed against them as anti-semitic, communist and pro al Qaeda.
A protestor, waving a photo of Trump with accused sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was taken from the rally
Trump had individual charges to make against each squad members, slamming Tlaib for vowing of him to ‘impeach the motherf***er.’
‘Tlaib also used the F word to describe the presidency and your president,’ he said. ‘Isn’t that nice? Even for me. She was describing the president of the United States, and the presidency with the big fat vicious, the way she said it, afterward. That’s not somebody that loves our country,’ he said.
Then he turned his wrath on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, making fun of her name.
‘I don’t have time to go with three different names,’ he said of the Democratic lawmaker. ‘We will call her Cortez. It takes too much time. So Cortez also said essentially Nazis are running concentration camps.’
Trump was referring to Ocasio-Cortez’s charge the U.S. was building concentration camps.
‘This administration has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying,’ she tweeted last month.
Trump blasted her for her words.
‘When Mike Pence went down just a few days ago with members of Congress and the media and you look at those so-called “Horrible concentration camps” he said “Wow, these places are clean. Wow, they have air conditioning, they have water.” And to be honest, it’s not like they came – we want to take care of people, we got to straighten out our immigration laws. You know, and a very short period of time, if the Democrats would give us a few votes, we could solve the immigration problem, and it would be so great,’ he said.
He ended it with the final member of the ‘squad’: Ayanna Pressley.
He asked if she was ‘related in any way to Elvis? I don’t know. Who knows?’
And he ended his diatribe by repeating his offer they could leave the country.
‘These congresswomen, there comments are helping fuel the rise of a dangerous, hard left, but that’s okay because we are going to win this election like nobody’s ever seen. And tonight I have a suggestion for the hate-filled extremists who are constantly trying to tear our country down. They never have anything good to say. That’s why I say, hey, if they don’t like it, let them leave. Let them leave,’ Trump said.
President Trump also went after some of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates
Trump attacked Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren
At one point during his tirade, a protestor interrupted the rally, holding two handmade signs that read ‘Child Rapist’ and featured a photo of Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
The protestor was shouting that Trump was a ‘child rapist.’ He was quickly removed by security, as the crowd cheered.
And the ‘squad’ wasn’t the only target of the president’s ire.
The president also went after some of the Democrats running for the 2020 nomination.
He slammed Joe Biden as ‘mentally not prepared’ and mocked his performance in the first Democratic debate, where Biden stumbled to answer a charge from Kamala Harris about his opposition to a federal busing program in the 1970s.
‘He’s not prepared, he is not mentally prepared. That’s his problem. But everybody that knows him knows that. But Harris hit him with a pretty easy question on busing. What? I would say that’s pretty easy. And he choked. He choked. And then he said I ran out of time,’ Trump.
The president then turned to Pete Buttigieg, the youngest candidate in the race and the first openly gay Democrat to run for president.
‘And you have a young guy. Buttigieg. Buttigieg. They are saying how to say his name. Buttigieg. He’s a beauty. He runs a failed city. His city is doing so badly. Mike Pence was the governor of that state. I said how was he as the mayor? Mike is one of the nicest human beings you’ll ever meet. And Mike said “He never did a good job. I’m so shocked to see him running.”‘
Trump slammed Buttigieg for his handling of a black man shot by a white police officer in his hometown of South Bend.
‘And then he goes back home and African-Americans literally were so angry at him for the lousy job and he supposed to be a hot young star. If that’s the hot young star, I guess I just don’t know stars anymore. That’s not a star. Buttigieg. You say woot and then edge, edge edge. Buttigieg. I don’t see him dealing with President XI of China. I don’t see him meeting successfully with Kim Jong un. I don’t see him dealing — and nobody has been tougher with Russia than Donald Trump. I don’t see him dealing with Vladimir Putin,’ Trump.
And he slammed Bernie Sanders for not being a Democrat, pointing out he’s an ‘independent,’ and mocked his Medicare for all program.
‘He’s actually not even a Democrat. He’s an independent,’ he said.
He then took a shot at Sanders’ sinking poll numbers.
‘Bernie, let me save you some time you missed,’ he added. ‘You’re not doing too well.’
He also went after Elizabeth Warren, who he calls Pocahontas, for having her blood tested for Native American ancestry.
Trump pointed out the above baby in the crowd, saying ‘Look at that beautiful baby.’
Trump greets supporters at the beginning of his rally
Supporters at the Trump rally waved signs
Warren used claims of ancestry on college applications and other forms. Trump mocked her for it and she had a test done that showed she 1/1,024 Native American DNA.
‘How about this, I was driving her crazy so she went out and hired a guy to check her blood,’ Trump said as the crowd roared.
‘Then the Indians got together and said we don’t want her,’ he said of criticism Warren faced after the test results were revealed by her campaign.
The president kicked off his campaign rally Wednesday night by blasting the failed House impeachment vote against him and offering a thank you to Democrats who voted against pursuing such an inquiry against him.
‘The United States House of Representatives has overwhelmingly voted to end the most ridiculous project I have ever been involved in. The resolution – how stupid is that,’ he said.
‘I want to thank for Democrats because many of them voted for us,’ he said.
Before he took the stage, Trump slammed the House’s failed impeachment vote as a ‘ridiculous project’ and ordered Democrats to get back to work.
It was ‘the most ridiculous project,’ Trump told reporters on the tarmac of the impeachment vote, which failed 332 to 95 with all Republicans voting for it and more Democrats in favor of killing the impeachment resolution than were for it.
‘We just received an overwhelming vote against impeachment and that is the end of it. Let the Democrats now get back to work,’ he said.
The president also got in a slam at Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation – the rally was scheduled for the night of the special counsel’s testimony before Congress only to see Mueller’s appearance pushed back a week.
President Trump kicked off his campaign rally Wednesday night by blasting the failed House impeachment vote against him
But Trump got in a reference anyway during his rally, calling it ‘bulls***.’
‘What happened to me with this witch hunt should never be allowed to happen to another president ever again,’ he told the crowd, who cheered him on.
He also told his campaign rally to imagine what he could have accomplished ‘If we didn’t have the bullshit’ of Mueller’s investigation against him.
Then a supporter yelled out a suggestion to him that the president repeated in his remarks.
‘But could you imagine what it could have been if we didn’t have the witch hunt, you said it. So I will not say what this guy said – if we didn’t have the bulls***,’ he said as the crowd roared.
‘Could you imagine if we didn’t have the time wasted, the time and everything,’ he said. ‘Maybe we would have had too much time on our hands. Who knows. I can say nobody in the first two and half years as any done anywhere close to what we — not me — what we’ve all done.’
The crowd went wild at his words.
President Trump slammed the House’s failed impeachment vote as a ‘ridiculous project’
Trump arrived in Greenville, N.C. for a campaign rally
A GOP motion to kill the impeachment resolution prevailed, with Democats split 137-95 on it
Trump arrived in Greenville, N.C., a bastion of Republican votes.
Vice President Mike Pence warmed up the crowd.
‘North Carolina and America need four more years,’ he told them.
‘Four more years,’ the crowd shouted back.
‘It’s time everybody. Time for round two. The campaign for America’s future continues tonight. What began four years ago has grown into a movement,’ Pence said.
Trump didn’t let the crowd forget they have an election to vote in next year.
‘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. That’s what’s going to happen. Take a look around. Their party is afflicted with an ideological sickness that protects foreign borders, but refuses to protect our own borders,’ he said.
‘America will never be a socialist country,’ he told the crowd to wild cheers.
‘You must never forget the 2020 election is all about one thing: You. It’s about you. It is about your family. It is about your future. And the fate of your beautiful, loving country,’ he noted.
Trump campaign signs decorate the rally site
Vice President Mike Pence and Eric and Lara Trump were at Wednesday’s rally
Eric Trump rode on Air Force One from Washington D.C. to Greenville with his father
Lara Trump, a North Carolina native, warms up the crowd at the Smith-Williams Arena at East Carolina University
Supporters wave ‘Women for Trump’ signs
Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara is from North Carolina and helped deliver the state to him in the last presidential election.
She addressed the crowd in Greenville Wednesday night. And her husband Eric Trump rode on Air Force One with the president from Washington D.C.
The president won North Carolina by four points over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
The state is set to be competitive in the upcoming presidential election.
Wednesday’s rally marks the third he’s held in North Carolina since he took office.