House to vote on resolution condemning racist Trump tweets

The House will vote on a resolution Tuesday evening officially condemning President Trump’s racist tweets telling a group of Democratic congresswomen to “go back” to their countries.

The resolution, obtained by CBS News, “strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color by saying that our fellow Americans who are immigrants, and those who may look to the President like immigrants, should “go back” to other countries.”

It asserts that the House “believes that immigrants and their descendants have made America stronger, and that those who take the oath of citizenship are every bit as American as those whose families have lived in the United States for many generations.”

Speaking to Democratic members in a closed-door meeting Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that “we are offended by what he said about our sisters,” according to a Democratic aide attending the meeting.

“He says that about people every day, and they feel as hurt as we do about somebody in our family having this offense against them,” she said. “So this is a resolution based in who we are as a people, as well as a recognition of the unacceptability of what his goals were.”

On Tuesday morning Mr. Trump again defended his earlier comments and condemned the impending vote in a series of tweets.

“Those Tweets were NOT Racist. I don’t have a Racist bone in my body! The so-called vote to be taken is a Democrat con game. Republicans should not show “weakness” and fall into their trap,” Mr. Trump tweeted. On Sunday, Mr. Trump had targeted freshmen Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar in a series of tweets, writing that the representatives — three of whom were born in the U.S., and all American citizens — should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

In a letter to her Democratic colleagues on Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote that Mr. Trump “went beyond his own low standards using disgraceful language about Members of Congress,” and she said that “[t]he House cannot allow the President’s characterization of immigrants to our country to stand.” The resolution is co-sponsored by Rep. Tom Malinowski, who Pelosi noted in her letter, was born abroad, and Rep. Jamie Raskin. Currently, there are 11 naturalized citizens serving in Congress.

Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Pressley and Omar held a press conference Monday evening to address Mr. Trump’s tweets. “He would love nothing more than to divide our country based on race, religion, gender, orientation or immigration status, because this is the only way he knows he can prevent the solidarity of us working together,” Omar, a citizen who migrated to the U.S. as a Somalian refugee, said.

Some House Republicans defended Mr. Trump’s comments on Tuesday. When asked directly “is the president racist,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy responded, “No.” And he added that he would vote against the resolution.

On broader questions about whether the GOP has been too slow to condemn the tweets, McCarthy said: “We are the party of Lincoln.”

Mr. Trump defended himself on Monday, too, telling reporters at the White House that he didn’t think the tweets were racist.

“If you’re not happy here then you can leave as far as I’m concerned. If you hate our country, if you’re not happy here, you can leave,” he said at a White House event.

“And that’s what I say all the time, that’s what I said in tweet, which I guess some people think is controversial. A lot of people love it,  by the way. But if you’re not happy in the U.S., if you’re complaining all the time, very simply, you can leave. You can leave right now. Come back if you want. Don’t come back – it’s okay, too. But if you’re not happy, you can leave.”

Rebecca Kaplan and Camilo Montoya-Galvez contributed reporting.