Pelosi announces resolution condemning Trump’s racist tweets
The president’s weekend tweetstorm has brought the sometimes-fractured Democrats together as they denounce his comments
Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Monday a resolution in the House condemning President Donald Trump’s tweets over the weekend in which he instructed progressive congresswomen to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
The president’s weekend tweetstorm has brought the sometimes-fractured Democrats together as they denounce his statements, which have been condemned by many as racist.
Trump did not name the congresswomen he was referring to in the tweet, but some of the best-known Democratic freshmen include Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib, of Michigan, and Massachusetts’ Ayanna Pressley. All are American citizens and besides Ilhan Omar, who was born in Somalia, were born in the United States.
“I reject the President’s xenophobic comments meant to divide our nation. Rather than attack Members of Congress, he should work with us for humane immigration policy that reflects American values,” Pelosi wrote in a Dear Colleague letter Monday.
“Our Caucus will continue to forcefully respond to these disgusting attacks,” she said.
The resolution condemning the president’s tweets is sponsored by New Jersey Democrat Tom Malinowski, who was born in Slupsk, Poland, “along with other Democratic Members born abroad,” according to Pelosi.
Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin, who was born in D.C., is also a bill sponsor.
Virginia Democrat Don Beyer pointed out in a Sunday tweet that while Trump’s tweets targeted freshmen women, he was also born abroad and hadn’t drawn Trump’s attention.
Only one of the Members of Congress pictured below was born outside the United States.
It’s me, also the only one who was not the subject of a racist tweet by the President today. All of us — including those like @Ilhan and me born elsewhere — are proud Americans. pic.twitter.com/EOUCCj7Ldx
— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) July 14, 2019
The resolution will quote Ronald Reagan’s final speech as president, according to Pelosi.
“Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we’re a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge, always leading the world to the next frontier… If we ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost,” she quoted the Republican in the letter to her colleagues.
Trump’s tweets put him at the center of a public feud that bubbled over last week between Pelosi and the freshmen progressives, but the attacks from Trump may result in a show of unity by the House Democratic caucus.
The president’s targeted tweets have given the caucus something to join together and rally against.
Trump’s tweets followed a week of tension within the House Democratic caucus, as internal conflict between Pelosi and a group of four freshmen women of color spilled out into the public sphere. On Friday night the caucus’s official Twitter account escalated tensions by sharply condemning Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff for a remark about moderate freshmen Rep. Sharice Davids.