House votes to condemn Trump’s tweets
4 Republicans join Democrats in decrying remarks as racist
WASHINGTON — A divided House voted Tuesday night to condemn President Donald Trump’s racist remarks telling four minority congresswomen to “go back” to their ancestral countries, with all but a handful of Republicans dismissing the rebuke as harassment, while many Democrats pressed their leaders for harsher punishment of the president.
The imagery of the 240-187 vote was stark: A diverse Democratic caucus cast the president’s words as an affront to millions of Americans and descendants of immigrants while Republican lawmakers — the majority of them white men — stood with Trump against a resolution that rejected his “racist comments that have legitimized fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color.”
Only four Republicans broke ranks — Reps. Susan Brooks, of Indiana, Brian Fitzpatrick, of
Pennsylvania, Will Hurd, of Texas, and Fred Upton, of Michigan — and joined Democrats in backing the resolution. Rep. Justin Amash, I-Mich., who quit the GOP earlier this month, also voted for it.
Trump insisted in a string of tweets Tuesday that he’s not a racist — “I don’t have a Racist bone in my body!” he wrote — and the top two Republicans in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, of California, made identical statements when pressed on Trump’s remarks: “The president is not a racist.”
Trump also lashed out at the four Democratic women — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley, of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib, of Michigan — for the third day in a row, accusing them of “spewing some of the most vile, hateful, and disgusting things ever said by a politician in the House or Senate.”
Among Pennsylvania Republicans, only Fitzpatrick, of Bucks County, joined the state’s nine Democratic U.S. House lawmakers in approving the resolution. Locally, those in support were Democratic Reps. Susan Wild, whose district includes Lehigh, Northampton and southern Monroe counties; and Madeleine Dean, of Montgomery County; and Fitzpatrick. Republican U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser, whose district includes Schuylkill and Carbon counties, voted “no.”
“The language and tone being used by so many in our country needs to change,” Fitzpatrick posted on Twitter following the House vote. “The Hatfield versus McCoy brand of politics must end. Democrats and Republicans need to start treating each other respectfully and like human beings. We are all created in the image and likeness of God.”
After the vote, Meuser tweeted, “I strongly oppose Democrat leadership’s latest effort to harass @realDonaldTrump. For years, he and his supporters have been subjected to baseless attacks. Such slander is a disservice to our nation and the American people, and I am tired of it.”
The Republican National Committee provided a list comments to bolster Trump’s contention, but in none did the four women say they hate America or wanted to leave, as the president has asserted.
Three of the four lawmakers were born in the United States, and Omar is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Somalia.
“I know racism when I see it. I know racism when I feel it. And at the highest levels of government, there is no room for racism,” Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who fought for civil rights in the 1960s, said in the final minutes of the House debate.
The resolution “strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color.”
The debate played out on a raucous House floor as lawmakers attacked each other’s motives and repeatedly questioned whether their opponents had violated long-standing rules of decorum — rules that ultimately were changed after Republicans challenged Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s use of the word “racist.”
Democrats, led by Pelosi, DCalif., insisted Tuesday that they could reach no other conclusion and that condemnation was imperative, calling Trump’s comments racist — prompting Republicans to challenge her.
Pelosi said the words “are disgraceful and disgusting, and those comments are racist,” careful not to label Trump himself a racist. “How shameful to hear him continue to defend those offensive words — words that we have all heard him repeat, not only about our members, but about countless others.”
Moments later, Rep. Douglas Collins, R-Ga., moved to have Pelosi’s words taken down, a rarely invoked procedure that ground debate to a halt for more than an hour while the House parliamentarian examined whether they violated the chamber’s standards of decorum. On a party-line vote, her words stood.
A visibly frustrated Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., who was presiding over the House, reprimanded his colleagues, saying that despite his efforts to be fair, they “don’t ever want to pass up an opportunity to escalate.”
“We just want to fight,” he said.
Tuesday’s vote was a rare occasion in which members of the Republican caucus have been forced to go on the record regarding Trump’s controversial rhetoric. Since Trump has tightened his grip on the GOP, many lawmakers in his party have gone to great lengths to avoid criticizing him, fearful of the president’s wrath sinking their electoral chances.
“This resolution is harassing the president of the United States,” said freshman Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa.
Democrats insisted that the vote was a test for the Congress and the nation.
“We know who he is,” Rep. Tom Malinowski, D-N.J., said of Trump. “The question is, only question, is. ‘Who are we. Are we still the country of immigrants?’ ”
Shortly after the House voted to condemn Trump’s tweets, Rep. Al Green, of Texas, introduced articles of impeachment against the president, potentially forcing a vote this week on whether to remove Trump from office.
The vote would come too soon for most Democrats, as a majority of the caucus appears to oppose impeachment — at least for now.
But Green is seeking to capitalize on a growing sentiment for impeachment in the wake of Trump’s racist tweets. Green said Tuesday night on the House floor that Trump is unfit for office and “enough is enough.”
Any member of the House can force an impeachment vote. Green has done so twice before, unsuccessfully.