In a poll conducted by Politico/Morning Consult, 58% of Americans said that “Send her back” chants directed at Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and incited last week by Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Greenville, North Carolina, were racist, as were Trump’s tweets attacking Omar and three other congresswomen of color. The partisan split was immense, with 87% of Democrats saying the chants were racist, 58% of independents agreeing, but only 24% of Republicans saying so. There were very similar results from voters in general, from Democrats, and from independents regarding Trump’s tweets attacking the congresswomen, all of them American citizens, all but one born in the United States. But only 16% of Republicans saw the tweets as racist.
Rishika Dugyala writes:
Even though only a quarter of Republican voters said they thought the chants were racist, many of them still were not comfortable with the outburst. Half of Republicans said they thought the “send her back” chants were inappropriate, compared with 38 percent who said they were not inappropriate. Overall, 71 percent of voters said the chants were inappropriate.
Perceptions of the rally outburst didn’t change even when voters learned that Trump said he was “not happy” with the chant, the poll found.
Uncomfortable? Uh-huh.
Since the outcry over “Send her back” arose, Trump himself has been pretending that he is uncomfortable about the chant. He ultimately got around to saying, “I was not happy with it. I disagree with it. But again, I didn’t say that. They did. But I disagree with it.”
As anyone can see from the video embedded here, Trump used the chant as if it were applause for his attacks on Omar, turning from side to side in acknowledgment. And then he continued his rant without even the mildest scolding. No surprise, since the reaction he got in Greenville was exactly the one he had sought. He could, right then, have said something along the lines of, “No, no. We don’t talk about Americans like that even when we disagree with them.” But, of course, that would have undermined his incendiary attack on Omar as well as the rest of the racist incitements he’s been spraying since he took the oath of office.
It’s encouraging that a majority of Americans perceive that chant and those tweets as racist. But—no shock to any black, brown, or indigenous Americans or to their white allies—the vast majority of Republicans remain firmly mired in their apparent view that people aren’t racist unless they actually admit they are.