Rep. Ilhan Omar blasted President Trump during a rally for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by saying he was defending neo-Nazis and “coddling” white nationalists, which drew “lock him up” chants from the crowd.
The Minnesota Democrat called on Sanders’s supporters at the Sunday rally to put Trump’s “cruel ideology in the dustbin of history where it belongs.”
“Your efforts to coddle white supremacists, to ban Muslims from entering the United States, to call people at neo-Nazi rallies ‘very fine people,’ will fail,” the freshman congresswoman directed a message at Trump.
As the crowd cheered, chants of “lock him up” could be heard before Omar responded to the crowd, “As a matter of fact, none of us are going back! We are here to stay.”
The crowd’s chant was a play on the “lock her up” mantra that crowds at Trump rallies have used primarily when the president talks about Hillary Clinton. Omar’s response line was in reference to Trump telling her and her progressive “squad” members to “go back” to their home countries.
A crowd at one of the president’s rallies also chanted for the president to “send her back” in reference to Omar. Trump later condemned the chant.
The president has tried to make the progressive congresswoman and her allies the face of the Democratic party in an attempt to portray Democrats as dangerous socialists. Omar and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Sanders for president last month, along with Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
