‘Send her back’: Trump fires up crowd with attacks on ‘The Squad’

By Sharon Marris, news reporter

Donald Trump has used an election rally to intensify his attacks on four congresswomen he described as "hate-filled extremists".

Speaking in North Carolina, Mr Trump accused Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib of "helping to fuel the rise of a dangerous, militant hard left".

Devoting 20 minutes of his 90-minute speech to the group – known as The Squad – he talked about each in turn, supported by a frenzied crowd.

At one point he was speaking about Ms Omar, who is born in Somalia but moved to the US as a child, when the crowd started to chant: "Send her back!".

Ms Omar, Ms Ocasio-Cortez, Ms Pressley and Ms Tlaib are fierce critics of Mr Trump, particularly his immigration policies.

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Earlier in the week he had told them they should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came".

All four congresswomen are US citizens and three of them are US-born.

His comments resulted in the House of Representatives voting to "strongly condemn President Donald Trump's racist comments that have legitimised and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of colour".

At Wednesday's rally, Mr Trump said: "Tonight I have a suggestion for the hate-filled extremists who are constantly trying to tear our country down.

"They never have anything good to say.

"That's why I say: 'Hey, if they don't like it, let them leave. Let them leave'.

"I think in some cases they hate our country."