The congresswoman Ilhan Omar took a swipe at Donald Trump on Thursday, posting a photo on Instagram of herself and Nancy Pelosi in Ghana with the caption: “They said ‘send her back’ but Speaker Pelosi didn’t just make arrangement to send me back, she went back with me.”
The photo came from a congressional trip to the African country this week, in observance of the American slave trade’s 400th anniversary. The two women were joined by the civil rights icon and Georgia congressman John Lewis and other members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Omar’s comment followed Donald Trump’s racist assertion that she and three other progressive lawmakers of color – representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, who call themselves the Squad – should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came” despite the fact that they were all US citizens. Subsequently, Trump’s supporters chanted “send her back” after Trump mentioned Omar at a rally in North Carolina.
Pelosi, who has found herself at odds with the progressive members of the Squad in the past on issues such as impeachment, vigorously denounced Trump’s behavior. The House of Representatives swiftly passed a resolution condemning the attack as racist.
“Every single member of this institution, Democratic and Republican, should join us in condemning the president’s racist tweets,” Pelosi said on the House floor after the resolution was passed.
In her address to the Ghanaian parliament on Wednesday, Pelosi said the delegation’s visit to a fort where slaves had been held was a “transformative and humbling” experience.
Ghana’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo, declared 2019 “the Year of Return” – a commemoration that is meant to encourage people of African ancestry to make the “birthright journey home for the global African family”.
Omar posted several snapshots from the delegation’s trip, thanking Akufo-Addo for hosting the delegation and committing to “work together to overcome global security and build a more sustainable world to combat climate crisis”.
In a statement, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Karen Bass, said it had been “a profoundly significant trip”, adding that it “says a great deal about the historical ties between our countries and reaffirms our commitment to Ghana and to the continent of Africa”.
