According to CNN, Trump did not name who he was attacking in Sunday’s tirade but earlier this week he referenced New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when the president was defending House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
A group of Democrats, who are women of color and have been outspoken about Trump’s immigration policies, last week condemned the conditions of border detention facilities. The group of women joining Ocasio-Cortez were Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
Trump implied in the series of tweets that the congresswomen weren’t born in America and sarcastically suggested, “they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
Later Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter that the country she “come(s) from” and “swears to” is the US and suggested that Trump is “angry because you can’t conceive of an America that includes us.”
“You rely on a frightened America for your plunder,” the New Yorker wrote in a tweet.
Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Pressley are natural-born US citizens, while Omar was born in Somalia and immigrated to the US when she was young. Omar became a citizen in 2000 when she was 17 years old, according to the New York Times.
Trump’s tweets come as interest in the conditions of detention centers housing migrants has risen sharply and raids to round up undocumented immigrants are being conducted Sunday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in multiple major cities across the nation.
Omar, responding to the Trump’s attacks on Sunday, threw punches at him in a pair of tweets, writing that “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 wrote, adding that Trump is “stoking white nationalism” because he is “angry that people like us are serving in Congress and fighting against your hate-filled agenda.”
Tlaib and Pressley also hit back at Trump on Twitter, with Tlaib saying she is “fighting corruption” in the US “every day when I hold your (administration) accountable as a US Congresswoman,” and Pressley saying the tweets are “what racism looks like.”
“WE are what democracy looks like. And we’re not going anywhere. Except back to DC to fight for the families you marginalize and vilify everyday,” Pressley wrote in a tweet.
Trump continued his attacks on the progressive House members Sunday evening, claiming they “speak so badly of our country.” In a pair of tweets, he said he was sad to see Democrats sticking up for the House members, and that he looked forward to the 2020 election if they continue with this strategy.
Meanwhile, in a later tweet, Pelosi asked Trump to work with Congress for a “humane immigration policy” and to stop immigration raids.
- source : Mehrnews