President Trump sought to distance himself Thursday from racist chants made by his supporters at a campaign rally in North Carolina on Wednesday evening. Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump insisted that he “felt a little bit badly” about the chorus of “Send her back” directed at Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Somalia and came to the United States as a political refugee. She has been a U.S. citizen longer than the first lady, Melania Trump. Trump made the claim even though video of Wednesday evening’s incident shows he did nothing to intervene as his supporters chanted “Send her back!”

President Donald Trump: “Omar has a history of launching vicious anti-Semitic screeds.”

Crowd: “Send her back! Send her back! Send her back! Send her back! Send her back! Send her back! Send her back!”

Trump waited a full 13 seconds before continuing his verbal attack on Congressmember Omar. This came just three days after Trump attacked Omar and three other progressive Democratic congresswomen of color on Twitter, writing, “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”