Trump gets facts wrong in ‘racist’ putdown
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Sunday assailed a group of Democratic congresswomen of color as foreign-born troublemakers who should go back to the “broken and crime infested places from which they came,” ignoring
the fact that the women are American citizens and all but one was born in the U.S.
Trump’s tweets brought condemnation from Democrats, who set aside their rifts to speak as one in calling Trump’s remarks racist and breathtakingly divisive.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the president wants to “make America white again.” Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez of New York, jousting for days with Pelosi, said Trump “can’t conceive of an America that includes us.”
Trump was certainly referring to OcasioCortez and her allies in what’s become known as “the squad.” The others are Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
Ocasio-cortez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, was born in the Bronx Tlaib
and raised in suburban Westchester County. Pressley, the first black congresswoman elected from Massachusetts, was born in Cincinnati. Tlaib was born in Detroit. Omar, the first Somali native elected to Congress, was born in Somalia but spent much of her childhood in a Kenyan refugee camp as civil war tore apart her home country. She immigrated to the U.S. at age 12, teaching herself English by watching American TV and eventually settling in Minneapolis.
Ocasio-cortez denounced Trump’s remarks. “Mr. President, the country I come from, & the country we all swear to, is the United States,” she tweeted. “You are angry because you can’t conceive of an America that includes us. You rely on a frightened America for your plunder.” Omar said, as if addressing, Trump: “You are stoking white nationalism (because) you are angry that people like us are serving in Congress and fighting against your hate-filled agenda.”
Ex-texas Rep. Beto O’rourke, a Democratic presidential candidate, tweeted at Trump: “This is racist. These congresswomen are every bit as American as you — and represent our values better than you ever will.”
And Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, tweeted, in part: “Shut. Your. Reckless. Mouth.”
Pelosi has been seeking to minimize Ocasio-cortez’s influence, prompting Ocasio-cortez to accuse Pelosi of trying to marginalize women of color. Trump tweeted in Pelosi’s defense Friday, saying “She is not a racist.” On Sunday, his tone turned nativist in tweets that evoked the old racist trope of telling a black person to go back to Africa.
“So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run,” he said in tweets.
“Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done.
“These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!”
Few Republicans immediately weighed in. Shortly afterward, Trump left to go golfing at his Virginia club.