Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow (Mich.) on Monday criticized Education Secretary Betsy DeVos with a joke about chants directed at Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).
“Too many of our children languish in inadequate, ill-equipped schools. Thank you Betsy DeVos,” Stabenow said to the crowd at the NAACP convention in Detroit.
“I really wish she was not from Michigan. I think we should send her back.”
The Michigan lawmaker referenced chants of “send her back” that broke out after President Trump criticized Omar at a rally in North Carolina.
{mosads}The chants came days after Trump told four freshman Democratic representatives — Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) — to “go back” to the “crime infested places” they came from.
All four lawmakers are U.S. citizens, and only Omar was born outside of the U.S.
The House voted days later to condemn the remarks as “racist,” with four Republicans and newly Independent Rep. Justin Amash (Mich.) joining the entire Democratic Party in the vote.