Inside: Sen. Cory Gardner, on Trump tweets: “I think he shouldn’t have done it.” »
U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner said Tuesday that President Donald Trump was wrong to send tweets telling Democratic congresswomen of color to leave the country.
“I disagree with the president. I wouldn’t have sent those tweets,” Gardner told Denver’s KOA Newsradio. “I think he shouldn’t have done it.”
In a series of tweets widely condemned as racist, Trump said unnamed progressive Democrats “came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe” and should return to the “crime infested places from which they came.”
The president’s remarks, which he defended at the White House on Monday, were aimed at a clique of four Democratic congresswomen: Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. Of the four, only Omar was born outside the United States — in Somalia — and all are U.S. citizens.
“Those Tweets were NOT Racist. I don’t have a Racist bone in my body!” the president tweeted Tuesday morning before again accusing the congresswomen of hating the United States.
Gardner, a Yuma Republican who faces a tough reelection fight next year in a state where Trump is unpopular, said the president should focus on uniting the American people, not dividing them.
“I think we have to focus on things like bringing this country together and moving this country forward,” Gardner told KOA. “Highlight disagreements, highlight the fact that we have better ideas — or you have better ideas — but I wouldn’t have sent that tweet. I just disagree with it.”
Gardner told a conservative radio host Monday that he was focused on other matters, declining to comment on the Trump tweets. The senator had faced flack from his many Democratic opponents, who have accused him of political cowardice for not commenting.
“Senator Gardner’s silence in the face of hate is an insult to Coloradans across every race, background and religious affiliation,” a Colorado Democratic Party spokesperson said Monday.