CNN’s Tapper: Trump Told a ‘Naked Lie’ — He Let the Crowd Chant for ’13 Seconds’

Thursday on CNN’s “The Lead,” host Jake Tapper said President Donald Trump told a “naked lie” when he denounced the “send her back” chant referencing Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) at his rally Wednesday night.

Tapper said, “‘Send her back’ they chanted. Now you know the back story; The president launched attacks earlier this week, even attacks that Republican members of the House and Senate called racist. The president suggested that those women should go back to the country they came from, though three of the four were born in the United States, and all four are American citizens. Last light it all went one precipitous step farther when the president and the crowd focused on Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who has made controversial comments, though the president’s lies about what she said and demonizing of her propertied results so shocking, that even some of the meekest voiced their discomfort, if not horror and revulsion. So this afternoon, President Trump suddenly claimed that he disagreed with those ugly chants.”

Tapper played a clip of Trump saying, “I’m not happy about when I hear a chant like that.”

He continued, “The president told a demonstrable lie. The lie that he started speaking very quickly so as to end that chant.”

Tapper played a clip of Trump in which a reporter asked, “Why didn’t you ask them to stop?”

Trump said, “Number one, I think I did. I started quickly, I disagree with it, by the way, but it was quite a chant, and I felt a bit badly about it, but I will say this, I did, and I started speaking quickly.”

Tapper said, “That’s a naked lie. When the chants started, President Trump stopped talking. He let the crowd go, and did not resume until the chant died out on its own.”

After playing the clip of the chant at the North Carolina rally, Tapper said, “Thirteen seconds. For 13 seconds, the president of the United States stood there as a crowd of supporters screamed that he should send an American citizen, a woman who fled Somalia as a child refugee, now a member of the U.S. Congress, back to Somalia. This is all part and parcel of the president’s 2020 reelection strategy. No more dog whistles, just naked racism telling American citizens who are of a different color to go back where they came from. It’s a campaign tactic we need to be aware of as a tactic notwithstanding the obvious immorality of bigotry.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN