GOP senator wastes no time praising Trump after racist rally in North Carolina

Trump continued his racist attacks against several Democratic congresswomen during a North Carolina campaign rally Wednesday night, drawing immediate praise from that state’s junior Sen. Thom Tillis.

During a particularly vile part of Trump’s remarks attacking Somali-born Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), the crowd broke out into a sustained chant of “send her back.” During the chant, Trump stood silently on stage, seeming to enjoy listening to a largely white audience demand that a black woman go back to Africa.

In reaction to this textbook racism, Tillis had nothing but praise for Trump.

“Thank you, @realDonaldTrump, for visiting the great state of North Carolina today,” Tillis wrote on Twitter immediately after the rally concluded. “I know you are working hard to Keep America Great!”

Trump’s racist attacks against Omar and three other women of color  —Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) — began on Sunday and have ramped up during the week. On Sunday, Trump demanded that the four congresswoman “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”

Some Republicans gave tepid responses to Trump’s obvious and sustained racism, but when it came time to vote in the House to condemn such remarks, the overwhelming majority of Republican lawmakers sided with Trump’s racism.

Tillis’ hometown newspaper, the Charlotte Observer, asked him and the entire Republican Party a simple question in a Monday editorial: “Are you ok with a racist president?”

The editorial slammed Tillis and other Republicans for refusing to stand up to Trump’s use of common racist tropes, saying, “Instead of standing up for who we should be, they’re bowing to the worst of who we are.”

On Wednesday night, Tillis and Republicans across the country proved the editorial board right, scraping and bowing before Trump rather than taking a moral stand against racism.

The Republican message of not only accepting but supporting racism could not be more clear.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.