This week’s White House Report Card finds President Trump working his way out of his harsh words directed at Rep. Ilhan Omar, the Somali-born Democrat with her own toxic criticism of the president, the U.S. and Israel.
It is amazing how the Fake News Media became “crazed” over the chant “send her back” by a packed Arena (a record) crowd in the Great State of North Carolina, but is totally calm & accepting of the most vile and disgusting statements made by the three Radical Left Congresswomen…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2019
His remarks at a North Carolina rally drew chants from supporters of “Send Her Back,” which Trump later disavowed. Both our graders, Democratic pollster John Zogby and conservative analyst Jed Babbin gave him poor grades.
John Zogby
Grade F
Donald Trump has disgraced himself and his presidency this week. Enough said.
Jed Babbin
Grade D-
President Trump wasted what could have been a good week sparring with four House Democratic freshmen representatives, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley, over his tweets last weekend. Those tweets said the four should go back to “the broken and crime-infested places from which they came.” All except Omar are native Americans.
Trump’s Tweets weren’t inherently racist: they were stupid, immature and perfectly phrased to invite the accusation of racism which the four — now called “the Squad” — and the media spent the week tossing at Trump. It didn’t help that at a rally Trump supporters chanted “send her back,” apparently aimed at Omar, a naturalized Somali refugee. (The week ended with the “Squad” calling Trump a fascist, of the definition of which they are obviously ignorant.)
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2019
The “Squad” was making big trouble for Speaker Nancy Pelosi when Trump took the heat off Pelosi by Tweeting about the four freshmen and then listening without objection to the “send her back” chant. Trump apparently doesn’t know about Napoleon’s admonition that when your enemy is destroying himself, don’t interfere.
Trump can’t afford the 2020 campaign to be only about racism, but that’s what he’s teeing up for the Democrats. If he wanted to criticize “the Squad” he could have pointed out that of the four, two are vile anti-Semites, one is cataclysmically dumb about everything to do with the “Green New Deal” she espouses, and the fourth is someone who would be totally anonymous if not for the fact she’s pals with the other three.
In the House, meanwhile, a resolution to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump failed. But the House voted to hold both Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in criminal contempt for refusing to produce documents on the decision-making process regarding the citizenship question Trump wanted to include in the 2020 census but backed down on last week.
John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Poll and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His latest book is We are Many, We are One: Neo-Tribes and Tribal Analytics in 21st Century America. Follow him on Twitter @TheJohnZogby
Jed Babbin is a Washington Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin
