Trump vs. Dems: ‘Racist,’ ‘socialist’ lines drawn
WASHINGTON — With tweets and a vote, President Donald Trump and House Democrats established the sharp and emotionally raw contours of the 2020 election campaigns.
In the process, they have created a fraught political frame: “racists” vs. “socialists.”
Trump’s aggressive condemnation of women of color in Congress has allowed House Democrats to mend, for now, their own political divisions as they put the president on record with a resolution condemning his words as racist.
But by pushing the House majority into the arms of the squad of liberal freshman women, Trump also adds to his narrative that Democrats have a “socialist” agenda, a story line he started to bring into focus during his State of the Union address.
Political triumphs are being claimed on all sides. Yet it’s unclear whether either approach is what’s needed to sway independent-minded voters who typically determine congressional and presidential elections. And at a time when polling shows Americans sense a worsening of racial attitudes, the searing attacks along Pennsylvania
Avenue are tapping potentially explosive emotions.
“I do think I’m winning the political fight,” Trump told reporters outside the White House. “I’m winning a lot.”
Whoever is “winning,” there was no cooling off Wednesday. Trump continued attacking the quartet during a campaign rally in Greenville, North Carolina, and the crowd responded by chanting, “Send her back!” The House voted on a resolution on impeachment, though a majority of Democrats joined united Republicans in killing the measure.
In all, the current state of affairs offers “a very clear choice,” said Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee.
“The Democrat party
is now a socialist party, and these four women have become the de facto speakers of the Democrat House,” she said on Fox. “So he’s saying, do you want socialism or do you want what we’re delivering with higher jobs, higher wages, more jobs, a strong economy.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested Americans already have heard enough from Trump, with his “disgusting” remarks “denigrating” the nation’s values.
“The president knows the arguments that are being made against him and therefore he wants to distract from them,” Pelosi said. “Let’s not waste time on that,” she said. “We’re talking about what we’re going to do to help the American people.”