Trump digs in: ‘You can leave’
Dems, four congresswomen of color denounce rhetoric; GOP largely treads carefully
WASHINGTON >> Defiant in the face of widespread criticism, President Donald Trump renewed his belligerent call Monday for four Democratic congresswomen of color to get out of the U.S. “right now,” cementing his position as the most willing U.S. leader in generations to stoke the discord that helped send him to the White House.
Content to gamble that a sizeable chunk of the electorate embraces his tweets that have been widely denounced as racist, Trump made clear that he has no qualms about exploiting racial divisions again.
“It doesn’t concern me because many people agree with me,” Trump said at the White House. “A lot of people love it, by the way.”
The episode served notice that Trump is willing to again rely on incendiary rhetoric on issues of race and immigration to preserve his political base in the lead-up to the 2020 election.
There was near unanimous condemnation from Democrats for Trump’s comments and a rumble of discontent from a subset of Republicans — but notably not
from the party’s congressional leaders.
Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the GOP White House nominee in 2012 and now one of Trump’s most vocal GOP critics, called the comments “destructive, demeaning, and disunifying.”
Far from backing down, Trump on Monday dug in on comments he made a day earlier on Twitter that if lawmakers “hate our country,” they can go back to their “broken and crimeinfested” countries. His remarks were directed at four congresswomen: Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. All are American citizens, and three of the four were born in the U.S.
“If you’re not happy in the U.S., if you’re complaining all the time, you can leave, you can leave right
now,” Trump said.
His words, which evoked the trope of telling black people to go back to Africa, may have been partly meant to widen the divides within the House Democratic caucus, which has been riven by internal debate over how best to oppose his policies. And while his attacks brought Democrats together in defense of their colleagues, his allies noted he also was having some success in making the controversial progressive lawmakers the face of their party.
Trump questioned whether Democrats should “want to wrap” themselves around this group of four people as he recited a list of the quartet’s most controversial statements.
Hours later, the four called a news conference to denounce Trump’s remarks, which they argued were part of a pattern of hateful language intended to distract from what they said were brutal policies and misconduct in office.
“I encourage the American people, and all of us in this room and beyond,
to not take the bait,” said Pressley, who made a point of not referring to Trump by name, instead calling him “the occupant of the White House.”
“This is simply a disruption and a distraction from the callous, chaotic and corrupt culture of this administration,” she added.
In a blistering speech that culminated with a call to impeach him, Omar recounted a litany of Trump’s most offensive comments about people of color, women and immigrants.
“And to distract from that, he’s launching a blatantly racist attack on four duly elected members of the United States of House of Representatives, all of whom are women of color,” Omar said. “This is the agenda of white nationalists, whether it is happening in chat rooms, or it is happening on national TV, and now it has reached the White House garden.”
Trump “does not know how to defend his policies, and so what he does is attack us personally,” said Ocasio-Cortez.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said Trump’s campaign slogan truly means he wants to “make America white again,” said Monday that the House would vote on a resolution condemning his comments. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said his party would try to force a vote in the GOP-controlled chamber.
Trump, who won the presidency in 2016 in part by energizing disaffected voters with inflammatory racial rhetoric, made clear he has no intention of backing away from that strategy in 2020.
“The Dems were trying to distance themselves from the four ‘progressives,’ but now they are forced to embrace them,” he tweeted Monday. “That means they are endorsing Socialism, hate of Israel and the USA! Not good for the Democrats!”
Trump has faced few consequences for such attacks in the past. They typically earn him cycles of wall-towall media attention. He is wagering that his supporters will be energized by the controversy.
“It’s possible I’m wrong,” Trump allowed Monday. “The voters will decide.”
Republicans largely trod carefully with their responses. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Trump who golfed with him over the weekend, advised him to “aim higher” during an appearance on “Fox and Friends,” even as he accused the four Democrats of being “anti-Semitic” and “anti-American.”
Marc Short, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, said, “I don’t think that the president’s intent in any way is racist,” pointing to Trump’s decision to choose Elaine Chao, who was born outside the country, as his transportation secretary.
Chao is the wife of Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, who declined to comment on Trump’s attacks.