President Donald Trump talked about the “horrors of slavery” but was interrupted by a Virginia delegate who shouted “you can’t send us back” at an event marking the 400th anniversary of the first legislative assembly in Jamestown.
August 1619 also marked the month the first African slaves came to US shores.
“It was the beginning of a barbaric trade in human lives,” the president said. “Today in honor we remember every sacred soul who suffered the horrors of slavery and the anguish of bondage.”
Trump spoke of black Americans’ history — from slavery through the Civil War and the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King Jr.
“In the face of grave oppression and grave injustice, African Americans have built, strengthened, inspired, uplifted, protected, defended and sustained our nation from its very earliest days,” Trump said.
As he continued, a man yelled from the audience, “Mr. President, you can’t send us back, Virginia is our home.”
That was followed by boos from the crowd that turned into a pro-Trump chant.
Ibraheem Samirah — the youngest Virginia delegate at 27, a Democrat and a Muslim — said he was the heckler.
“I just disrupted the @realDonaldTrump speech in Jamestown because nobody’s racism and bigotry should be excused for the sake of being polite,” Samirah tweeted following the event. “The man is unfit for office and unfit to partake in celebration of democracy, representation, and our nation’s history of immigrants.”
The president’s speech comes on the heels of a multi-day attack on the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who is black — and Cummings’ city of Baltimore.
As the president left the White House for the quick trip to Virginia, he reiterated that point.
“Baltimore has been very badly mishandled for many years,” said Trump, standing on the South Lawn. “As you know, Congressman Cummings has been there for a very long time. He has had an iron hand on it. It is a corrupt city, all you have to do is look at the facts. The government over the years has pumped in billions and billions of dollars to no avail. To absolutely no avail.”
Cummings had criticized the conditions at US border facilities when acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan was testifying before his committee earlier this month. On Friday, Cummings had also publicly spoken out on his support for the so-called “Squad.”
Trump had told them — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) — to “go back” to where they came from, despite all four lawmakers being US citizens. Only Omar, a naturalized citizen, was born outside the United States.
