President Donald Trump on Sunday said
progressive congresswomen should “go back” and try to fix the “crime
infested places” they “originally came from” before telling the U.S.
government how to handle its problems.
“So
interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally
came from countries whose governments are a complete and total
catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if
they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and
viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most
powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run,” Trump wrote in a series of three tweets.
“Why
don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested
places from which they came,” the president continued. “Then come back
and show us how it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t
leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to
quickly work out free travel arrangements!”
Though
he did not mention anyone by name in his tweets, the president appeared
to be referring to a group of progressive congresswomen who have
generated headlines and whose influence was recently downplayed by House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
That group includes
Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota,
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and Ayanna Pressley of
Massachusetts.
Tlaib, a Palestinian
American, was born in Michigan; Omar, a Somali refugee, moved to the
U.S. when she was 12 and is a naturalized U.S. citizen; Ocasio-Cortez,
who is of Latin-American descent, was born in New York; and Pressley,
who is African American, was born in Cincinnati.
Ocasio-Cortez responded
to Trump on Twitter Sunday afternoon, saying “the country I ‘come
from,’ & the country we all swear to, is the United States.”
“But
given how you’ve destroyed our border with inhumane camps, all at a
benefit to you & the corps who profit off them, you are absolutely
right about the corruption laid at your feet,” she continued. She added
that Trump is “angry because” he doesn’t “believe in an America where I
represent New York 14, where the good people of Minnesota elected
[Omar], where [Tlaib] fights for Michigan families, where [Pressley]
champions little girls in Boston.”
“You are
angry because you can’t conceive of an America that includes us,” she
said. “You rely on a frightened America for your plunder.”
Omar also responded to Trump in a tweet on Sunday, saying she and her fellow members swear an oath only to the U.S., “Which is why we are fighting to protect it from the worst, most corrupt and inept president we have ever seen.”
Pelosi on Sunday blasted Trump’s screed,
saying that when the president “tells four American Congresswomen to go
back to their countries, he reaffirms his plan to ‘Make America Great
Again’ has always been about making America white again.”
“Our diversity is our strength and our unity is our power,” the California Democrat added.
Trump’s
tweets were swiftly condemned by other congressional Democrats,
including presidential candidates, who called them “racist” and
“bigoted.”
[NBC News]
