Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — After President Trump tweeted that “‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen” should stop criticizing the government and “go back” to where they came from, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned the tweets as “xenophobic.”
The president did not explicitly name the congresswomen he was referring to, but said they “originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe.” He then went on to say that they should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done.”
The White House did not respond to multiple requests for clarification on the president’s tweets, but the Trump campaign made an attempt to defend the president’s tweets.
Matt Wolking, head of the Trump campaign’s rapid response, tweeted, “Anyone who says the president told members of Congress to go back to where they came from is lying. He told them to ‘Then come back and show us how it is done.'”
Pelosi seemed to conclude Trump was referring to four recently-elected and vocal progressive Democratic women — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass. and Rashida Tlaib D-Mich.
Only one of the four women, Rep. Omar, is foreign-born, and all are U.S. citizens. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez was born in New York, Rep. Pressley was born in Cincinnati, and Rep. Tlaib was born in Detroit.
In defending the members of Congress, who are all women of color, Pelosi slammed the president for wanting to “make America white again.”
“When @realDonaldTrump 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 speaker tweeted in response on Sunday morning.
Rep. Omar responded to the president in a tweet in which she described her loyalty to the U.S. as one of the reasons she opposes the Trump administration.
“Mr. President, As Members of Congress, the only country we swear an oath to is the United States. Which is why we are fighting to protect it from the worst, most corrupt and inept president we have ever seen,” Omar said.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez also weighed in on Twitter.
“Mr. President, the country I ‘come from,’ & the country we all swear to, is the United States,” she wrote. “You are angry because you can’t conceive of an America that includes us. You rely on a frightened America for your plunder.”
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