MSNBC “Morning Joe” co-anchor Mika Brzezinski became noticeably emotional as she condemned the “send her back” chants that targeted Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) at President Trump’s rally in North Carolina on Wednesday night.
Brzezinski invoked her father, a Polish American who served as the national security adviser in President Carter’s administration, saying that people like him and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright would “tell you that this is pure and simple evil.”
{mosads}“I try not to invoke my father because I could never live up to even be half who he was. But people like my father and people like Madeleine Albright who came here and made this country greater, to coin the president’s term, they will tell you that this is pure and simple evil and that someone is going to get hurt, whether it be someone in an office today or in a school or anywhere in America, someone is going to get hurt,” Brzezinski said, becoming emotional. “Whether they are hurt personally, emotionally, psychologically or physically.”
“Let me just tell you, we’re not just at a dangerous place,” she continued. “We’re at a place where things are boiling over. And this president is promulgating racism and violence.”
Brzezinski’s father, Zbigniew Brzezinski, was born in Warsaw, Poland, before arriving in the U.S. and having a decorated career as a U.S. diplomat. Albright was born in what is now the Czech Republic.
The comments from Brzezinski came just a day after a rally crowd repeatedly chanted “send her back” as Trump targeted Omar, a U.S. citizen who fled Somalia with her family as a child.
The episode came amid a week in which Trump has relentlessly targeted Omar and a group of minority congresswomen. Trump on Sunday said that the lawmakers — Omar, and Democratic Reps, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Rashid Tlaib (Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) — should go back to the “crime infested places” they came from before speaking out about how the U.S. should be governed.
He also claimed the women “came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe.” Omar is the only one among the four to be born outside the U.S. They are all U.S. citizens.
The House on Tuesday voted to condemn Trump’s remarks as racist. Trump has adamantly stood by his comments, saying that the lawmakers should leave if they are unhappy in the U.S. He said Thursday that he was “not happy” with the “send her back” chants.