Chants were racist

Poll: Majority of voters say ‘send her back’ chants were racist

By RISHIKA DUGYALA

Most voters say the chants of “send her back” at a Donald Trump rally in North Carolina last week were racist, as were the president’s tweets about four congresswomen of color that inspired the outburst, a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll found.

Fifty-eight percent of voters labeled the chants, which were directed at Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), “racist,” including 87 percent of Democrats. Just 24 percent of Republicans said the chants were racist, according to the poll released on Wednesday.

The chants at a rally in Greenville, N.C., came less than a week after Trump tweeted that Omar and Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley — four Democrats who have been critical of him and have come to be known as the “Squad” — should “go back” to their home countries if they were unhappy in the U.S. (All but Omar were born in the United States.)

More than half of voters — 53 percent — said they thought those tweets were racist, including 84 percent of Democrats and 16 percent of Republicans.

“Republicans remain steadfast in their support for President Trump and don’t necessarily view last week’s series of controversial remarks as racist,” said Tyler Sinclair, Morning Consult’s vice president, who added that “83 percent approve and 16 percent disapprove of his performance — unchanged from last week.

Trump’s tweets came in the midst of an intra-party clash between House Democratic leaders and the progressive wing. Speaker Nancy Pelosi chastised the freshman representatives for publicly criticizing their colleagues after a contentious border-funding package passed. Ocasio-Cortez suggested that Pelosi was “singling out” women of color, though she later said Pelosi was not a racist.

Within days, Trump tweeted that the progressive congresswomen were “loudly and viciously” telling people of the U.S. how to run the government: “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

He added, “I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!”

Pelosi and House Democrats — joined by four moderate Republicans — voted to condemn the president for the “racist comments.” Despite voting against the resolution, many conservative lawmakers disavowed the tweets. And following the “send her back” chants, some House GOP leaders said they were disturbed and took their concerns to Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump eventually denounced the chants, 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.”

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. Nearly two-thirds of participants said they had heard “a lot” or “some” about the episode.

Additionally, 54 percent of voters said Trump himself is racist, a 6-point increase from January that was driven by jumps among Democrats and Hispanic voters.

The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll was conducted July 19-21, surveying 1,992 registered voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.