House condemns Donald Trump ‘racist’ tweets in extraordinary rebuke

In a remarkable political repudiation, Democratic-led U.S. House voted on July 16 night to condemn President Donald Trump’s “racist comments” against four congresswomen of color, despite protestations by Trump’s Republican congressional allies and his own insistence he hasn’t “a racist bone in my body.”

Two days after Trump tweeted that four Democratic freshmen should “go back” to ir home countries — though all are citizens and three were born in U.S.A. — Democrats muscled resolution through chamber by 240-187 over near-solid GOP opposition. rebuke was an embarrassing one for Trump even though it carries legal repercussions, but if anything his latest harangues should help him with his die-hard conservative base.

Despite a lobbying effort by Trump and party leers for a unified GOP front, four Republicans voted to condemn his remarks: moderate Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Fred Upton of Michigan, Will Hurd of Texas and Susan Brooks of Indiana, who is retiring. Also backing measure was Michigan’s independent Rep. Justin Amash, who left GOP this month after becoming party’s sole member of Congress to back a Trump impeachment inquiry.

Democrats saved one of day’s most passionate moments until near end. “I kw racism when I see it,” said Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, whose skull was fractured at 1965 “Bloody Sunday” civil rights march in Selma, Alabama. “At highest level of government, re’s room for racism.”

Before showdown roll call, Trump characteristically plunged forward with time-tested insults. He accused his four outspoken critics of “spewing some of most vile, hateful and disgusting things ever said by a politician” and ded, “If you hate our Country, or if you are t happy here, you can leave !” — echoing taunts long unleashed against political dissidents rar than opposing parties’ lawmakers.

president was joined by House Mirity Leer Kevin McCarthy of California and or top Republicans in trying to redirect focus from Trump’s original tweets, which for three days have consumed Washington and drawn widespre condemnation. Inste, y tried playing offense by accusing four congresswomen — among Democrats’ most left-leaning members and ardent Trump critics — of socialism, an accusation that’s alrey a central me of GOP’s 2020 presidential and congressional campaigns.

Even after two-and-a-half years of Trump’s turbulent governing style, spectacle of a president futilely laboring to he off a House vote essentially proclaiming him to be a racist was extraordinary.

Underscoring stakes, Republicans formally objected after Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said during a floor speech that Trump’s tweets were “racist.” Led by Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, Republicans moved to have her words stricken from record, a rare procedural rebuke.

After a delay exceeding 90 minutes, . 2 House Democrat Steny Hoyer of Maryland said Pelosi h indeed violated a House rule against characterizing an action as racist. Hoyer was presiding after Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri stormed away from presiding officer’s chair, lamenting, “We want to just fight,” apparently aimed at Republicans. Even so, Democrats flexed ir muscle and House voted afterward by party line to leave Pelosi’s words intact in record.

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In tweets on July 16 night, Trump took a positive view of vote, saying it was “so great” that only four Republicans h crossed party lines and ting procedural rebuke of Pelosi. “Quite a day!” he wrote.

Some rank-and-file GOP lawmakers have agreed that Trump’s words were racist, but on July 16 party leers insisted y were t and accused Democrats of using resulting tumult to score political points. Among few voices of restraint, Senate Majority Leer Mitch McConnell said Trump wasn’t racist, but he also called on leers “from president to speaker to freshman members of House” to attack ideas, t people who espouse m.

“re’s been a consensus that political rhetoric has gotten way, way heated across political spectrum,” said Republican leer from Kentucky, breaking his own two days of silence on Trump’s attacks.

Hours earlier, Trump tweeted, “Those Tweets were T Racist. I don’t have a Racist bone in my body!” He wrote that House Republicans should “t show ‘weakness’” by agreeing to a resolution he labeled “a Democrat con game.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, one of Trump’s four targets, returned his fire.

“You’re right, Mr. President - you don’t have a racist bone in your body. You have a racist mind in your he and a racist heart in your chest,” she tweeted.

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four-p Democratic resolution said House “strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color.” It said Trump’s slights “do t belong in Congress or in United States of America.”

All but going Republicans, resolution included a full p of remarks by President Ronald Reagan, who is revered by GOP. Reagan said in 1989 that if U.S. shut its doors to newcomers, “our leership in world would soon be lost.”

Tuesday’s faceoff came after years of Democrats bristling over anti-immigrant and racially incendiary prouncements by Trump. Those include his kicking off his presidential campaign by proclaiming many Mexican migrants to be criminals and asserting re were “fine people” on both sides at a 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that turned dely.

And strong words in Washington come as actions are underway elsewhere: ministration has begun coast-to-coast raids targeting migrants in U.S. illegally and has newly restricted access to U.S. by asylum seekers.

Trump’s criticism was aimed at four freshman Democrats who have garnered attention since ir arrival in January for ir outspoken liberal views and thinly veiled distaste for Trump: Ocasio-Cortez and Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. All were born in U.S. except for Omar, who came to U.S. as a child after fleeing Somalia with her family.

four have wd an increasingly personal clash with Pelosi over how assertively House should try restraining Trump’s ability to curb immigration. But if anything, Trump’s tweets may have eased some of that tension, with Pelosi telling Democrats at a closed-door meeting on July 16, “We are offended by what he said about our sisters,” according to an aide who described private meeting on condition of anymity.

That’s t to say that all internal Democratic strains are resolved.

four rebellious freshmen backed Rep. Steven Cohen of Tennessee in unsuccessfully seeking a House to vote on a harsher censure of Trump’s tweets. And Rep. Al Green of Texas was trying to force a House vote soon on wher to impeach Trump — a move he’s tried in past but lost, earning opposition from most Democrats.

At Senate Republicans’ weekly lunch on July 16, Trump’s tweets came up and some lawmakers were finding situation irksome, participants said. Many want 2020 campaigns to focus on progressive Democrats’ demands for government-provided health care, abolishing federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement ncy and or hard-left policies.

“Those ideas give us so much material to work with and it takes away from our time to talk about it,” Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana said of Trump’s tweets.

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