House votes to condemn Trump’s tweets as racist
WASHINGTON – For all the tumult and anger that President Donald Trump’s verbal attacks on four minority lawmakers have caused, he has been clear about his political motives: Drive a wedge through the country that forces each side to its corner.
Trump is betting he can repeat the formula that won him election in 2016, widening the nation’s racial, cultural and ideological divides to eke out victory with a strong showing among older conservative white voters.
Democrats, who have been debating how much to focus the 2020 election on Trump’s personal behavior, voted in the House on Tuesday evening to condemn Trump’s racist tweet that told four liberal members of Congress – all women of color – to “go back” to the “crime-infested places from which they came.”
The four-page resolution “strongly condemns (Trump’s) racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color.”
The unusual measure passed 241 to 187, with support from four Republicans and one independent; no Democrats opposed it.
The House was briefly thrown into chaos before the vote when Republicans objected to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s use of the word “racist” to describe Trump’s words, which violates the chamber’s rules of decorum. Democrats voted to restore Pelosi’s right to speak in the chamber again before proceeding to the measure condemning Trump.
The vote forced Republicans to choose between condoning the bigotry and facing Trump’s political wrath. Their leaders, including Minority Leader Kevin Mccarthy of California, have sided with Trump.
“Those Tweets were NOT Racist,” Trump tweeted Tuesday in the lead-up to the vote. “I don’t have a Racist bone in my body! The so-called vote to be taken is a Democrat con game. Republicans should not show ‘weakness’ and fall into their trap.”
Trump’s advisers have long believed the 2020 election would depend on turning out base voters on each side. Whereas some Democrats have hoped to define the anti-trump vote as a broad coalition, Trump believes he has the best shot if the election pits a smaller group of high-intensity voters against each other.
Democrats, who represent the overwhelming majority of the country’s minorities in Congress, have been appalled by Trump’s willingness to capitalize on the country’s racial divisions for political gain. But they also are being thrust into a debate on Trump’s terms–with increased chatter about impeachment and the president’s polarizing rhetoric–even as some in the party believe healthcare and economic inequality can attract more voters.
“He is choosing this turf,” said Tad Devine, a former adviser to Al Gore, John Kerry and Bernie Sanders who is neutral in this year’s Democratic primary. “He does want to have a campaign that is about issues like racism. I don’t think this is accidental. I think it’s deliberate.”
Devine believes Trump is exploiting a small group of voters who tend not to pay close attention to politics but may respond to appeals to their “worst instincts.” But, Devine said, Trump risks losing support from another 5 percent to 7 percent of the electorate–conservative voters who agree with him on economic issues or court appointments but find his personal behavior irredeemable.
Although Trump won in 2016 by tapping into race and immigration, his party lost the House in the 2018 midterms despite his claims that caravans of migrants from Central America were forming an “invasion.”