Megan Rapinoe Slams ‘Send Her Back’ Chants: ‘Disgusting and Despicable’

U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) co-captain Megan Rapinoe ripped into the “send her back” chant that erupted at President Donald Trump’s recent campaign rally, calling it “disgusting and despicable.”

“I think we’re one step away from just saying a racial slur on national television, from the president of the United States,” Rapinoe said in an interview with the Charlotte Observer published Saturday.

The chant about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was “sad and disgusting and despicable,” said the athlete, who protested the national anthem during the World Cup. Rapinoe previously made headlines for saying she would not visit the “fucking White House.”

During a Wednesday evening rally in Greenville, North Carolina, Trump supporters broke into the chant as the president assailed the far-left “Squad”, a foursome of freshman Congresswoman made up of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA, and Omar.

Later in the interview, Rapinoe told the Observer that Omar, a Somalian refugee who became a U.S. citizen in 2000 and the target of the chant, “should be celebrated if anything.”

“To come here and be in Congress — to be the woman that she is, to be the leader that she is, to bring that different voice to the table — I think is something incredible,” the soccer star stated. “Something that we need in this country to be better.”

She added:

I think this country was quite literally built on the backs of people who weren’t from here and were forced to come here in slavery. But just in a broader sense, the best thing about this country is the diversity in the country and everything that it brings, and the fact that we have welcomed people from all over to create what has become the United States of America.

Democrats and the corporate media have also reacted furiously to the chant, calling it racist.

“Trump knows that when we stand together and fight for racial, social, economic and environmental justice, we have the power to defeat him. So the demagogue is doing what he knows best: Divide and conquer through hate,” 2020 White House hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said of the chant.

On Thursday, President Trump distanced himself from the chant, telling reporters in the Oval Office that he was “not happy with it.”

“I felt a little bit badly about it, but I will say this: I did start speaking very quickly… I was not happy with it. I disagree with it, but, again, I didn’t say that; they did,” he said.

President Trump and the “Squad” have been locked in a war of words since the president challenged the lawmakers to leave the U.S. if they continue their verbal attacks against the country.