The four congresswomen targeted by President Trump in a series of tweets that are being blasted as racist by critics are firing back, slamming the president as a white nationalist and calling for his impeachment while imploring people “not to take the bait” of engaging in a war of words.
In a press conference Monday, the congresswomen — Rep. Ihan Omar of Minnesota, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan — addressed Trump’s tweets without ever referring to him by name, saying his tweets were a “blatantly racist attack.”
But while Pressley referred to the tweets as “xenophobic, bigoted remarks,” she called for critics to focus on White House policies instead.
“I encourage the American people … not to take the bait,” Pressley said.
“All of this is a distraction,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “He does not know how to defend his policies, so what he does is attack us personally.”
Trump tweeted Sunday that the four congresswomen, who are all minority women, should go back to the “broken and crime-infested” countries they came from. All four are American citizens and three were born in the United States; Omar was born in Somalia and became a naturalized American citizen in 2000.
And on Monday, Trump doubled down on his tweets, saying criticism “doesn’t concern me because many people agree with me.”
“If you’re not happy in the U.S., if you’re complaining all the time, you can leave, you can leave right now,” Trump said at a White House event.
The Congressman returned fire, with both Tlaib and Omar calling for Trump’s impeachment. The congresswomen used the conference to promote their agenda on numerous items, including health care and immigration, while blasting Trump’s policies and his criticism of them.
“This is the agenda of white nationalists and now it’s reached the White House Garden,” Omar said.
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