July 18, 2019 "Information Clearing House" - Donald Trump stood there Wednesday night behind a lectern, silent, as a crowd of Americans at his rally erupted in a chant directed at a Somali-born Muslim congresswoman from Minnesota: “Send her back! Send her back! Send her back!”

It was chilling. An angry mob wanting an American citizen whose views they disagree with run out of the country. It’s the kind of thing that gets out of hand. It’s the kind of thing that gets people killed.

Trump lit the racist fire that led to those chants earlier this week, sending a series of tweets telling Rep. Ilhan Omar and three other Democratic congresswomen, all women of color, to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” a textbook racist trope.

Coward that he is, Trump squawked defensively, claiming his tweets weren’t racist and, heck, he doesn’t have a racist bone in his body!

So why didn’t he stop those chants Wednesday night? Why didn’t he put out the fire he lit?

Racists tend to be cowardly like that, happy to spout hateful rhetoric but unwilling to admit they flat-out hate — or fear — people different from them.

Own it, man. Without conviction, you’re just peddling snake oil.

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But no, Trump won’t fess up. And, as we learned this week, neither will the Republicans who march in lockstep with him. They saw no racism. Anyone calling Trump a racist is the real racist, right? Or maybe an anti-Semite, which, given that this president has praised torch-wielding white folks who chanted “Jews will not replace us!” as “very fine people,” is an upside-down piece of dishonest hypocrisy.

Oh, the Republicans say, I don’t like all the things Trump says, but I stand behind the president.

As if there’s daylight between “being racist” and “supporting a racist.” If you believe that, get ready to spend your days in darkness.

This week was a breaking point for America’s soul, and we got a good picture of who is standing on which side of the divide. The Republican Party is with the racist president — all in.

And the Americans at the racist president’s rally Wednesday night? They’re even more all in. So much so that they’ve lost sight of what this country is all about.

Nothing about the four congresswomen Trump has targeted makes them un-American. Nothing they’ve said suggests they hate America.

But angrily chanting “Send her back!” while the president of the United States stands there and soaks it in? That shows a certain kind of hate.

Will those Trump supporters admit to being racist? Maybe a few, but not many.

I have to ask: You clearly don’t mind expressing your point of view, so why not just accept the title? Why not embrace it? If you feel so strongly about an issue that you’ll stand up with thousands of others and chant something hateful, why not wear the label like a badge of honor?

Here’s a place where Trump could show real leadership. Admit it, Mr. President. Tell the world what it already knows. Say the words, “I am a racist.”

He won’t. Neither will the Republicans who support him, nor the crowds at his rallies.

But they’re Americans, just like me. Just like Ilhan Omar. Just like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. And they have a right to believe what they want to believe and say what they want to say.

I’m not going to call for them to be kicked out of the country, no matter how much I detest what they’re saying.

That not how things work here.

That’s something I would expect the president of the United States to know. And not stand by like a coward as that ideal gets stomped to dust.

rhuppke@chicagotribune.com

This article was originally published by "Chicago Tribune" -