The racist chant that resounded through Donald Trump’s political rally last week was like a “dagger that went through my heart,” North Carolina GOP Rep. Mark Walker told CNN on Monday.
Earlier this month, Trump launched a string of attacks on four progressive congresswomen of color when he said that Rep. Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) should “go back” to where they came from. All but Omar were born in the U.S.
Then, during a rally in North Carolina last week, Trump targeted Omar in his speech, which prompted thousands of his supporters to chant: “Send her back!”
The congressman, a former Baptist minister, was in the Greenville arena when Trump’s supporters demanded that Omar leave the country.
“I do not want to support in any way, shape or fashion, a phrase that for decades has been represented to hurt people in the minority communities,” Walker told Wolf Blitzer.
“As a former minister we have worked years in the inner cities,” Walker added. “The minority communities that value or put a little bit of trust and value in what we’re trying to do in Washington, I immediately thought of those folks.”
Walker’s statement on CNN was far more negative than the tweet he posted right after the rally:
Blitzer asked Walker what he would want to happen if the same chant erupted at another Trump rally. The congressman said he hoped the president “would condemn it immediately.”