Trump Refers to 4 Democratic Congresswomen as 'Racist'
US leader continues his days-long attack on the progressive lawmakers, saying they should apologize
U.S. President Donald Trump continued to lash out at four minority Democratic congresswomen he has been feuding with, referring to them Monday as a "racist group of troublemakers who are young, inexperienced and not very smart."
A day after saying the lawmakers are not "capable of loving our Country," Trump tweeted "They are pulling the once great Democrat Party far left, and were against humanitarian aid at the Border...And are now against ICE and Homeland Security. So bad for our Country!"
The “Squad” is a very Racist group of troublemakers who are young, inexperienced, and not very smart. They are pulling the once great Democrat Party far left, and were against humanitarian aid at the Border...And are now against ICE and Homeland Security. So bad for our Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2019
For over a week now, Trump has assailed Congresswomen Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayana Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, first telling them they should "go back" to their countries and "fix things" in their homelands before telling the U.S. what it ought to do. All of them are U.S. citizens, three of them by birth and Somali refugee Omar by naturalization.
Democrats and some Republicans have sharply criticized Trump's initial remarks and the U.S. House of Representatives condemned them as "racist," but the U.S. leader has continued to assail the four women, all newcomers to Congress in January.
In turn, the lawmakers have attacked him, with Omar saying, "I believe he is fascist."
The ongoing verbal warfare reverberated on the Sunday news talk television shows.
Mercedes Schlapp, a Trump campaign aide, defended the president, telling ABC News, "I have worked with President Trump for two years and he is not a racist. He is a compassionate man whose policies have focused on the minority community."
Trump immigration adviser Stephen Miller, told Fox News that Trump's critical remarks of U.S. policies during his 2016 campaign were made out of love for America.
But he said "there's a huge difference" between Trump's credo of promoting "America first" and the lawmakers' ideology "that runs down America."
Congressman Elijah Cummings, one of several House committee chairmen investigating Trump and his administration's policies, told ABC he believes Trump is a racist.
"Yes, no doubt about it," Cummings contended. "I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt."
Cummings says the four congresswomen targeted by Trump "love their country" and want to move closer to the "more perfect union that our founding fathers talked about. When you disagree with the president, suddenly you're a bad person."
He concluded, "Our allegiance is not to the president. Our allegiance is to the Constitution of the United States of America and the American people."