US speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (C) walks with reporters, before the Democrat controlled House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning US President Donald Trump for his \u201cracist comments\u201d about four Democratic congresswomen the day before, at the Capitol in Washington, DC on July 16, 2019. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS \/ AFP)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The US House of Representatives formally condemned Donald Trump on Tuesday for xenophobic attacks on four minority Democratic lawmakers and hostile language targeting immigrants, as the president denied accusations of racism.<\/p>\n
Top Republican leaders rallied around Trump, but four members of the president\u2019s party voted with the 235 Democrats to condemn him for \u201cracist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of colour.\u201d<\/p>\n
One independent lawmaker also supported the measure, which takes aim at Trump\u2019s weekend tweets telling a group of progressive Democratic congresswomen of colour to \u201cgo back\u201d to other countries.<\/p>\n
The resolution also takes the president to task for \u201creferring to immigrants and asylum seekers as \u2018invaders.’\u201d <\/p>\n
Trump has a long history of pandering to white suspicions about other ethnic groups, and the resolution criticizes him for \u201csaying that Members of Congress who are immigrants (or those of our colleagues who are wrongly assumed to be immigrants) do not belong in Congress or in the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats hold a majority in the 435-member House but are outnumbered by Republicans in the Senate, where the resolution is unlikely to be considered.<\/p>\n
The four congresswomen \u2014 all but one of whom were born in the US \u2014 are of Hispanic, Arab, Somali and African-American descent.<\/p>\n
Trump has stuck by the provocative comments. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur Country is Free, Beautiful and Very Successful. If you hate our country, or if you are not happy here, you can leave!\u201d the president tweeted Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Democratic leaders denounced Trump\u2019s remarks and rallied around the lawmakers \u2014 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley.<\/p>\n
Omar is the only one born outside the United States.<\/p>\n
Slamming the \u201cso-called vote\u201d as a \u201cDemocrat con game,\u201d Trump urged Republicans not to \u201cshow \u2018weakness\u2019 and fall into their trap.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThose Tweets were NOT Racist. I don\u2019t have a Racist bone in my body!\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis should be a vote on the filthy language, statements and lies told by the Democrat Congresswomen, who I truly believe, based on their actions, hate our Country,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cNancy Pelosi tried to push them away, but now they are forever wedded to the Democrat Party,\u201d Trump added, in a jab at the House speaker who has had a tenuous relationship with the four left-leaning first-term congresswomen.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the House floor prior to the vote, Pelosi said: \u201cEvery single member of this institution, Democratic and Republican, should join us in condemning the president\u2019s racist tweets.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo do anything less would be a shocking rejection of our values and a shameful abdication of our oath of office to protect the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know racism when I see it. I know racism when I feel it. And at the highest level of government, there\u2019s no room for racism,\u201d Representative John Lewis, an American civil rights icon, said in remarks on the House floor.<\/p>\n
\u2018All about politics\u2019 <\/strong>Trump\u2019s repeated attacks appear to be aimed at galvanizing his mostly white electoral base ahead of the 2020 presidential vote.<\/p>\nThey would seem to have borne fruit, with his approval rating among Republicans rising five percentage points to 72 percent, according to a Reuters\/Ipsos poll conducted on Monday and Tuesday.<\/p>\nHis overall rating with the public at large remained unchanged from last week at 41 percent.<\/p>\n\u201cSee you in 2020!\u201d said Trump, who before becoming president pushed the racist \u201cbirther\u201d conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not born in the United States.<\/p>\nOcasio-Cortez dismissed Trump\u2019s denial that he is a racist.<\/p>\n\u201cYou\u2019re right, Mr President \u2014 you don\u2019t have a racist bone in your body,\u201d she tweeted. \u201cYou have a racist mind in your head, and a racist heart in your chest.\u201d<\/p>\nShe also took aim at Republican lawmakers who voted against the resolution, telling CBS News that \u201cthey could not bring themselves to have the basic human decency to vote against the statement that the president made.\u201d<\/p>\nTrump meanwhile took to Twitter on Tuesday night to hail \u201chow unified the Republican Party was on today\u2019s vote.\u201d<\/p>\nWhile some Republican members of Congress have condemned Trump\u2019s remarks, House Republican leaders closed ranks behind the president.<\/p>\n\u201cThis is all about politics,\u201d said House Republican minority leader Representative Kevin McCarthy of California.<\/p>\nSenator Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, said: \u201cthe president is not a racist.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
They would seem to have borne fruit, with his approval rating among Republicans rising five percentage points to 72 percent, according to a Reuters\/Ipsos poll conducted on Monday and Tuesday.<\/p>\n
His overall rating with the public at large remained unchanged from last week at 41 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cSee you in 2020!\u201d said Trump, who before becoming president pushed the racist \u201cbirther\u201d conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not born in the United States.<\/p>\n
Ocasio-Cortez dismissed Trump\u2019s denial that he is a racist.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re right, Mr President \u2014 you don\u2019t have a racist bone in your body,\u201d she tweeted. \u201cYou have a racist mind in your head, and a racist heart in your chest.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also took aim at Republican lawmakers who voted against the resolution, telling CBS News that \u201cthey could not bring themselves to have the basic human decency to vote against the statement that the president made.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump meanwhile took to Twitter on Tuesday night to hail \u201chow unified the Republican Party was on today\u2019s vote.\u201d<\/p>\n
While some Republican members of Congress have condemned Trump\u2019s remarks, House Republican leaders closed ranks behind the president.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is all about politics,\u201d said House Republican minority leader Representative Kevin McCarthy of California.<\/p>\n
Senator Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, said: \u201cthe president is not a racist.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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