Minnesota Congresswoman Ilan Omar, arrived home Thursday afternoon at Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport to a crowd of supporters. This after several days of President Trump's tweets, urging her and three other women of color in Congress to "go back to where they came from". Wednesday, at a Trump rally in North Carolina, the crowd chanted "send her back", which the president said Thursday he disavows.
"They said 'send her back'. They didn't know I was already going back to have a beautiful conversation about what it means to make progress for all of the people in our country," Omar told the gathering.
Omar said she wants not only to be an example of hope, but also President Trump's nightmare. "His nightmare is seeing a Somali refugee rise to Congress", said Omar.
Trump has since said he didn't like the chants and that he tried to stop them, a claim that has been met with skepticism. The shouts resounded for 13 seconds as Trump made no attempt to interrupt them. He paused in his speech and surveyed the scene, taking in the uproar, not making any attempt to stop the chant.
"I started speaking really quickly," he told reporters Thursday. "I was not happy with it. I disagree with it" and "would certainly try" to stop any similar chant at a future rally.
CBS News has learned President Trump took a lot of heat from his family over the racist chants at a campaign rally in North Carolina on Wednesday. He heard from first lady Melania Trump, his daughter Ivanka and Vice President Mike Pence.
CBS has reporter that Mr. Trump spoke to several members of his inner circle about how to react to the chant. He weighed the pros and cons of softening his tone, worried supporters would not like it.
But ultimately, he declared unhappiness. Congressional Republicans also expressed concerns to Pence and asked him to relay the message to the president.
Many on both sides of the aisle are calling for all involved to "lower the rhetoric". Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he helped "further racism by not criticizing recent comments by President Donald Trump". The Kentucky Republican replied to that on the Fox Business Network, saying that Ocasio-Cortez' accusation is "nonsense." He says he attended Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech and President Lyndon Johnson's signing of the Voting Rights Act in the 1960s.
Minnesota congressman, and chairman of the House Republican campaign organization Tom Emmer added "there's no place" for the "send her back" chants unleashed at a campaign rally for President Donald Trump.
Emmer told reporters on Thursday that "there's not a racist bone in this president's body."
And Emmer is defending Trump, who's said critics of the U.S. should leave the country.
Emmer says Trump meant that dissatisfied people can leave, and "that goes for every one of us. It has nothing to do with your race, your gender or your family history."