Last night had all of the hallmarks
of Trump's rallies at their best.
You know, call and response, bragging about his achievements,
stories about mythical people
who tell hem him what a great president he is.
But then... but then he changed gears.
Changed gears, and he zeroed in on the story
that's been dominating news all week:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Squad.
And tonight I have a suggestion for the hate-filled extremists
who are constantly trying to tear our country down.
They never have anything good to say.
That's why I say, "Hey, if they don't like it,
let them leave." Let them leave, right?
Cortez.
Somebody said that's not her name.
It's...
They said, "That's not her name, sir."
I said, "No, no."
I don't have time to go with three different names.
We'll call her Cortez.
Too much time. Takes too much time.
My man, you just told us you literally had nothing to do!
(laughter)
"I have more time than anyone in the...
I got nothing to do."
"Can you say this congresswoman's full name?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, I don't have time for that.
You think these crazy tweets write themselves?"
(laughter)
And I guess... I guess maybe...
maybe Trump didn't have time to say her name
because he wanted to leave more time
for the crowd to boo all of the members of the Squad.
All right? Although, something tells me
there's one member of the Squad
Trump supporters aren't really familiar with.
When you see the four congresswomen...
Oh, isn't that lovely?
(crowd booing)
Representative Ilhan Omar.
(crowd booing)
Representative Rashida Tlaib.
(crowd booing)
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
(crowd booing)
Representative Ayanna Pressley.
(laughs)
Oh, man. Okay, that was... that was hilarious
because they clearly don't know who Ayanna Pressley is.
Everyone else, they were like, "Boo!"
And then with her, it was like, "Oh, we're still...
we're still reading up on her."
(laughter)
And I'll be honest. I'll be honest.
If I was Ayanna Pressley,
I wouldn't know how to feel about this.
No, because on the one hand, I don't want to get booed.
On the other hand, I don't want to be left out
by being the only person who doesn't get booed. You know?
Yeah. Like, if all my friends got booed and I didn't,
I would be like, "Guys, am I not booable?
"Am I... am I... You would tell me
"if I wasn't booable, right? Like...
"You know what, I'm gonna go to Instagram and see if I'm...
Wait, there's no likes. No one likes me?"
(laughter)
But while the crowd may not have been
as familiar with Ayanna Pressley,
it was very clear how they felt about Ilhan Omar.
NEWSMAN: It was the defining moment
of the president's rally Wednesday night
in North Carolina,
the raucous crowd unleashing a new chant:
"Send her back."
And obviously and importantly,
Omar has a history of launching
vicious, anti-Semitic screeds.
CROWD (chanting): Send her back! Send her back!
Send her back! Send her back! Send her back!
Send her back! Send her back!
Wow. "Send her back."
A U.S. citizen. "Send her back."
Yeah. It almost makes you miss the innocent days
when all Trump's crowd wanted to do
was imprison a woman without trial. You know?
(chanting): "Lock her up! Lock..."
'Cause that was horrible, but at least Hillary
would get to stay in the country, you know?
And, you know, there have been several disturbing moments
in the Trump presidency,
but for some reason,
this one moment felt extra disturbing.
It's the same way I felt when Ted Cruz grew a beard.
Like, I...
I didn't think it could get any worse,
but here we are.
And I-I'm far from the only one
who felt that way about this moment in the rally.
I mean, pretty much everyone who watched this thing
was sickened by what they saw.
A group of Republican congressmen
even personally expressed their concerns about it to Mike Pence
in a secret morning meeting.
Yeah. And the backlash was so intense
that even the president himself
tried to distance himself from his crowd.
REPORTER: When your supporters last night were chounting--
chanting "Send her back," why didn't you stop them?
Why didn't you ask them to stop saying that?
Well, number one, I-I think I did.
I started speaking very quickly.
It-it really was a loud--
I disagree with it, by the way.
But it was quite a chant.
And, uh, I felt a little bit badly about it.
But I will say this, uh, I did--
and I started speaking very quickly--
but it started up rather-rather fast,
as you probably noticed.
I was not happy when I heard that chant.
Wait, what?
Sometimes I think this guy thinks, like,
cameras don't exist. It's just like--
How-how is Trump gonna say he wasn't happy with that chant?
He inspired the chant.
He's the one who tweeted they should go back, right?
I mean, he said it in his speech. We saw it. He said it.
This would be like the deejay turning on a crowd.
You know? Like, the deejay's like,
"Everybody make some noise!"
And the crowd's like, "Hey!" He's like, "Hey, hey, hey, hey.
"Hey, we got neighbors, we got neighbors.
"Come on, man.
"It's a Tuesday night. People have things to do.
Come on."
And, like, I d-- I don't know what's worse.
I don't know what's a worse lie:
Trump saying that he didn't like the chant
or that he quickly stopped the crowd from chanting.
He said that. "I quickly stopped them."
He didn't stop anything.
He was basking in that moment
like an iguana soaking up racist sun.
Like, come on.
Like, he let that chant go on for so long,
Usain Bolt could have won a gold medal in that time.
Yeah. And that sounds like a joke,
sounds like a joke, but it's also completely true.
-(starting shot) -CROWD: Send her back! Send her back!
Send her back! Send her back!
-Send her back! Send her back! -(cheering and applause)
Send her back! Send her back!
And she talked about the evil Israel...
See that?
Everyone crossed the line
before Trump stopped the chant.
And, look, here's the thing,
like, we've seen this before from Trump.
If you remember, he's done this.
He gets his supporters worked up,
he pretends to be shocked,
and then it becomes one of his greatest hits
when he's on the road. He did the exact same thing
with "lock her up." Exact same thing.
Came out, they shouted "lock her up,"
and then, when they asked him, he was like,
"I c-- I can't believe it. I don't like it.
I don't want Hillary-- I don't want Hillary to go to jail."
And then, like, a few months later, he was like,
"Lock her up, lock her up."
So we know what's gonna happen.
We know where this is gonna go.
This is gonna become a thing.
And to all those Republicans
who felt uncomfortable by what they saw at this rally,
maybe instead of complaining about it to Mike Pence
in a little meeting, you should step up and do something.
Like, what I'm trying to say is
grow some balls, grow some balls,
-grow some balls. -(cheering and applause)