Trevor Noah on Why Those Racist Trump Rally Chants Against Ilhan Omar Were ‘Extra-Disturbing’
On Thursday night, The Daily Show host Trevor Noah addressed President Trump’s bordering-on-fascist rally the night before at Williams Arena in Greenville, North Carolina—you know, the one where Trump worked up his crowd into a lather till they unleashed a racist chant against Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
“And obviously and importantly, Omar has a history of launching vicious, anti-Semitic screeds,” offered Trump, to loud chants of “SEND HER BACK!” from the crowd. (Note: Omar has no such history.)
“Wow. Send her back. A U.S. citizen, send her back,” offered a defeated Noah. “It almost makes you miss the innocent days when all Trump’s crowd wanted to do was imprison a woman without trial. Lock her up! Lock her up! Because that was horrible, but at least Hillary would be able to stay in the country.”
“There have been several disturbing moments in the Trump presidency, but for some reason, this one moment felt extra-disturbing,” the comedian continued. “It’s the same way I felt when Ted Cruz grew a beard: I didn’t think it could get any worse, but here we are. And I’m far from the only one who felt that way about this moment in the rally. Pretty much everyone who watched this thing was sickened by what they saw.”
Trump, for his part, later told reporters he “felt a little bit badly” about the racist chants and claimed that he tried to cut them off during the rally by “speaking very quickly” (he did exactly the opposite—pausing for effect).
“Wait, what?!” Noah exclaimed. “Sometimes I think this guy thinks, like, cameras don’t exist. How is Trump going to say he wasn’t happy with that chant? He inspired the chant. He’s the one who tweeted they should go back.”
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“I don’t know what’s a worse lie: Trump saying that he didn’t like the chant or that he quickly stopped the crowd from chanting,” added Noah. “He didn’t stop anything. He was basking in that moment like an iguana soaking up racist sun. He let that chant go on for so long, Usain Bolt could have won a gold medal in that time.”
“Here’s the thing: We’ve seen this before from Trump… he gets his supporters worked up, he pretends to be shocked, and then it becomes one of his greatest hits when he’s on the road.”
The late-night host then left all Republican politicians silent over the racist chant with a message: “Grow some balls.”
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