It’s rally time again for Donald Trump, who seemingly can’t go more than about a month or so between ego-festivals. Trump essentially began his reelection campaign the day after he was inaugurated in 2017, and everywhere he goes, a crowd of enthusiastic racists and blowhards follows him around.
At Trump’s rally last month, a crowd began chanting “Send her back!” in response to the President’s recent call for Ilhan Omar and her cohorts in “The Squad” to “go back where they came from.” But that attracted attention that Trump was not necessarily pleased with. When his rallies look like they’re being attended by racist bigots, it’s all that leads the news, and even though that’s an accurate description of the crowds at his rallies, he still needs better PR than blatant xenophobia approaching violence.
Before Trump left for his rally today, reporters on the White House lawn asked him what he might say or do if the crowd at tonight’s event were to start up the same chant. His response left more than a little to be desired.
.@HallieJackson asks Trump if he’s prepared to tell OH supporters to stop “if they begin chanting something problematic?”
Trump: “I don’t know that you can stop people. I don’t know that you can…I would prefer they don’t but if they do it, we’ll have to make a decision then.”
— Karen Travers (@karentravers) August 1, 2019
“We’ll have to make a decision” likely means that if it happens, he’ll say something inflammatory about the media outlets filming from the back of the room in order to turn the ire of the crowd on them instead.
But in fact, Trump told Jackson that he didn’t know if one could stop the crowd from chanting, and when she gave him an opportunity to say something in advance to rallygoers that might dissuade them from doing the chant, he said that yes, he did have a message for them — “I love them.”
Asked if he’d stop tonight’s rally crowd if they start chanting “Send Her Back,” Trump says “we’ll have to see what happens.”
He adds: “I don’t know that you can. We will see what we can do. I would prefer they don’t but if they do it, we’ll have to make a decision then.” pic.twitter.com/d3uh4A6Iz0
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 1, 2019
Just like the billboard in North Carolina targeting the Squad, tonight’s rally will almost certainly be measured in levels of racism and anger. Let’s hope that hate crimes don’t spike in Cincinnatti after the event.
Featured image via screen capture
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