Donald Trump's attack on four Democratic congresswomen, whom he suggested should "go back" to "the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came", has been widely condemned as being racist.

The situation continued to escalate at a campaign rally in Greenville, North Carolina last night, with Trump targeting one of the four women, Ilhan Omar, during his speech.

In response to his attack on Omar, the crowd broke into a chant of "send her back".

Larry Donnelly, lecturer in law at NUIG, describes Trump's use of language as "quite dangerous rhetoric".

He also says that the congresswomen need to be protected from those who may respond to the president's words by carrying out "some crazy act".

"What we're seeing here is lowest common denominator politics. Perhaps the saddest thing is to hear just how well the people in the crowd responded to what Donald Trump was saying. To me, it's just profoundly sad."

Listen to the interview in full by pressing the play button on this page.