“The View” co-host Meghan McCain called the atmosphere at President Trump’s Wednesday campaign rally “dystopian” after the crowd chanted “send her back” about Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar (Mich.).
“It was really dystopian,” McCain said. “I was trying to go out to dinner and ignore politics. My family’s in town and came home and saw it on Twitter and then saw it on TV.”
McCain, who has widely criticized Omar’s stance on foreign policy with Israel, said the chants make political conversations about “race, xenophobia [and] racism” instead of policy critiques.{mosads}
“I’ve been one of Ilhan Omar’s most vocal critics on her policy regarding Israel, regarding some of her comments that I and many others interpreted as anti-Semitic, but the problem right now is you’re taking away my agency to criticize her policy because you’re making this so much about race, xenophobia, racism,” McCain said.
I “didn’t think this was something I would see in my country, especially when we’re going into 2020,” McCain continued.
On Thursday, McCain blasted the right for the chants attacking Omar, and called for younger people involved in the GOP, like the president’s daughter and son-in-law Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, to stand up against them for the good of the party’s future.
“It’s my generation that’s going to answer for this. Try selling conservatism to a younger generation when all they see is this kind of crap on TV,” McCain continued. “And the Trump administration, all of you — Ivanka, Jared, because you’re around my age range, where are you in this?”
Trump told reporters on Thursday that he disagreed with the “send her back” chants.
The controversy comes after Trump on Sunday attacked Omar and three other Democratic congresswomen of color on Twitter, saying the four U.S. citizens should “go back” to their home countries. Omar, who was born in Somalia and came to the U.S. as a refugee, is the only one of the group known as “the squad” who was born outside the U.S.