Leave the US, Trump tells liberal congresswomen of color
WASHINGTON (AP) — 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 prompted a wave of searing 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 Ocasio-Cortez of New York, jousting for days with Pelosi, said Trump "can't conceive of an America that includes us."
Trump was almost certainly referring to Ocasio-Cortez 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. Only Omar, from Somalia, is foreign-born.
Ocasio-Cortez swiftly denounced his 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."
And Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, tweeted: "Racial arsonist strikes again. Shut. Your. Reckless. Mouth."
With his tweet, Trump again inserted himself into a rift between Pelosi and the liberal congresswomen, after offering an unsolicited defense of the Democratic speaker days earlier. Pelosi has been seeking to minimize Ocasio-Cortez's influence in recent days,...