Four Republicans joined every Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday evening to approve a resolution condemning “racist” remarks made by President Donald Trump about minority Democratic congresswomen.
The House resolution, which was passed 240-187, “strongly condemns” Trump’s “racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for the chamber to unite “in condemning the president’s racist tweets.”
Her remark prompted a formal objection from Congressman Doug Collins, who argued the speaker’s phrase violated House decorum. A vote of the full House, however, rejected the Republican’s call for Pelosi’s comments to be struck from the record.
The majority of Republicans rejected the resolution that condemned the president from their party.
“This ridiculous slander does a disservice to our nation,” Congressman Dan Meuser said. Trump, who has been under fire since making the comments in a tweet Sunday, is not backing down.
Trump, who has been under fire since making the comments in a tweet Sunday, has not backed down. He used late Tuesday tweets to praise the Republicans who voted against the resolution and to continue his criticism of Congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayana Pressley and Rashida Tlaib.
“So great to see how unified the Republican Party was on today’s vote concerning statements I made about four Democratic Congresswomen. If you really want to see statements, look at the horrible things they said about our Country, Israel, and much more.”
Trump, who has said the lawmakers should leave the United States, was asked by a reporter where they should go.
It’s up to them. Wherever they want, or they can stay,” replied the president during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting. “But they should love our country. They shouldn’t hate our country.”
Trump, holding up pieces of paper, said he had “a list of things here said by the congresswomen that are so bad, so horrible that I don’t want to read it.”
The president added, “It’s my opinion, they hate our country.”
Hours earlier on Twitter, Trump declared, “I don’t have a racist bone in my body” as he continued to push back on criticism about his comments directed at the four women of color, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayana Pressley and Rashida Tlaib.
Trump has, repeatedly, since Sunday targeted the four House members.
Trump set off a firestorm by telling the four Democratic lawmakers to “go back” to their countries and fix their homelands before they attack him and the United States, although all four are U.S. citizens, with Somali refugee Omar a naturalized U.S. citizen and the other three U.S. citizens by birth.
The targets of Trump’s attacks appeared before reporters Monday in a collective and blistering show of force to rebut Trump’s social media and verbal volleys against them.
“He’s launching a blatantly racist attack on four duly elected members of the United States House of Representatives, all of whom are women of color,” said Omar, a Minnesota congresswoman. “This is the agenda of white nationalists.”
Omar and Tlaib, who are the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress, explicitly called for Trump’s impeachment.
One congressman, Al Green, introduced articles of impeachment against Trump immediately after the resolution passed condemning the president.
Green, ignoring the requests from Democratic leaders in the House, said Trump had committed “a high misdemeanor in office.”
The congressman’s action puts top Democrats in a quandary. If they try to effectively kill Green’s resolution, they risk ire from the party’s liberal base.
No action would allow the Texas representative to force a vote on impeachment after two legislative days.
Pelosi has called for committee chairs to continue investigating the president for potential abuse of power and obstruction of justice before impeachment is considered.
Source: VOA
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