IRISH-BORN CONGRESSMAN Sean Casten has condemned the actions of those at a Donald Trump rally who were recorded chanting for Congresswoman Ilhan Omar to “Go Back Home”.
The chant came during a 2020 campaign rally in Greenville, North Carolina, where the President launched a fresh attack on Omar and three other Democratic congresswomen.
On Sunday, Trump courted controversy with a series of tweets in which he told Omar and three other female politicians of colour - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan – to “go back” to their countries.
The attack came after the quartet came out against his immigration policy, which has seen a raft of undocumented people detained by ICE agents to be deported.
Trump was branded racist in the wake of the “go back” tweets but has refused to back down and used this latest rally to launch a fresh attack on the four congresswomen, labelled them “hate-filled extremists”.
The President’s comment sparked a chant of “send her back! send her back!” at the North Carolina rally in reference to Omar, a US congresswoman who arrived in the US some 30 years ago as a child refugee.
Trump’s comments – including a suggestion Omar supported Al-Qaeda – sparked more condemnation, with the Dublin-born Congressman Casten among those to criticise his remarks and the reaction of the Greenville crowd.
The rare and fleeting gift one earns as an elected official is a bully pulpit. We are given the ability to shape public opinion. We have a moral obligation to use that power responsibly. Trump's event tonight in NC is a gross abuse of that privilege.
— Sean Casten (@SeanCasten) July 18, 2019
“Getting a crowd to cheer in unison is no great challenge. Getting them to celebrate goodness, and something bigger than themselves is the mark of a states(wo)man. Getting them to shout hatred is the mark of a scoundrel,” he tweeted.
Getting a crowd to cheer in unison is no great challenge. Getting them to celebrate goodness, and something bigger than themselves is the mark of a states(wo)man. Getting them to shout hatred is the mark of a scoundrel.
— Sean Casten (@SeanCasten) July 18, 2019
“It is uplifting to steer a crowd to beauty and love. It is despotic to steer them to hate. To confuse that hatred for adulation as Trump has done tonight is a sign of deep insecurity and moral defect.”
It is uplifting to steer a crowd to beauty and love. It is despotic to steer them to hate. To confuse that hatred for adulation as Trump has done tonight is a sign of deep insecurity and moral defect.
— Sean Casten (@SeanCasten) July 18, 2019
Casten also urged his followers to show their support for Congresswoman Omar writing: “Regardless of your politics, send some love towards @Ilhan tonight. Let her know that our country is bigger than this tiny, fragile and dangerous man in the White House.”
Regardless of your politics, send some love towards @Ilhan tonight. Let her know that our country is bigger than this tiny, fragile and dangerous man in the White House.
— Sean Casten (@SeanCasten) July 18, 2019
