WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing a remarkable political repudiation, President Donald Trump and his Republican congressional allies denied Tuesday that he is racist and sought to shoo GOP lawmakers away from a House Democratic resolution condemning his "racist comments" about congresswomen of color.
Two days after tweeting that four Democratic congresswomen should "go back" to their home countries — though all are citizens and three were born in the U.S.A. — Trump characteristically plunged forward with time-tested insults. He accused his four outspoken critics of "spewing some of the most vile, hateful and disgusting things ever said by a politician" and added, "If you hate our Country, or if you are not happy here, you can leave!" — echoing taunts long unleashed against political dissidents rather than opposing parties' lawmakers.
The president was joined by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and other top Republicans in trying to redirect the focus from Trump's original tweets, which for three days have consumed Washington and drawn widespread condemnation. Instead, they tried playing offense by accusing the four congresswomen — among the Democrats' most left-leaning members and ardent Trump critics — of socialism, an accusation that's already a central theme of the GOP's 2020 presidential and congressional campaigns.
On the House floor, Rep. John Lewis made the following remarks:
“Madam Speaker, I rise with a sense of righteous indignation to support this resolution.
I know racism when I see it. I know racism when I feel it, and at the highest level of government, there is no room for racism. It sows the seeds of violence and destroys the hopes and dreams of people.
The world is watching; they are shocked and dismayed because it seems we have lost our way -- as a nation -- as a proud, great people. We are one Congress, and we are here to serve one house – the American house, the American people.
Some of us have been victims of the stain, the pain, the hurt of racism. In the 50s and during the 60s, segregationists told us to go back when we protested for our rights. They told ministers, priests, rabbis, and nuns to go back. The told innocent, little children seeking just equal education to go back.
As a nation and as a people, we need to go forward and not backwards. With this vote, we stand with our sisters – three were born in America, and one came here looking for a better life. With this vote, we meet our moral obligation to condemn hate, racism, and bigotry in every form."
Even after two-and-a-half years of Trump's governing style, the spectacle of a president laboring — probably in vain — to head off a House vote essentially proclaiming him to be a racist was extraordinary.
Underscoring the stakes, Republicans formally objected after Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said during a floor speech that Trump's tweets were "disgraceful and disgusting" and that Republicans should join Democrats in "condemning the president's racist tweets." Led by Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, Republicans sought to have her words stricken from the record, a rare procedural rebuke that failed on a party-line vote.
Collins released the following statement after the moment in the House.
“This afternoon, I begged my colleagues to embrace the rules and integrity of our chamber, for the House to be an example in lowering tensions and elevating dialogue. I was compelled to demand that the House enforce the rules against Speaker Pelosi, for her deliberate attack on the president. Democrats admitted her words violated the rules of decorum, the very rules that ensure democracy’s every voice can be heard as we carry out the people’s business. Still, every Democrat lawmaker voted against striking her words from the record. It bears repeating the House prizes decorum because it is a symptom of and a catalyst for a healthy, confident democracy. I hope we recover that confidence soon and more forward with respect for the American people who sent elected officials, including the president, to represent them in Washington.”
After a delay of more than 90 minutes, No. 2 House Democrat Steny Hoyer of Maryland said Pelosi had indeed violated a House rule against characterizing an action as racist. Hoyer was presiding after Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri stormed away from the presiding officer's chair, saying, "We want to just fight," which he apparently aimed at Republicans.
Some rank-and-file GOP lawmakers have agreed that Trump's words were racist, but on Tuesday party leaders insisted they were not and accused Democrats of using the resulting tumult to score political points. Among the few voices of restraint, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Trump wasn't racist, but he also called on leaders "from the president to the speaker to the freshman members of the House" to attack ideas, not the people who espouse them.
"There's been a consensus that political rhetoric has gotten way, way heated across the political spectrum," said the Republican leader from Kentucky, breaking his own two days of silence on Trump's attacks.
Hours earlier, Trump tweeted, "Those Tweets were NOT Racist. I don't have a Racist bone in my body!" He wrote that House Republicans should "not show 'weakness'" by agreeing to a resolution he labeled "a Democrat con game."
Rep. Jody Hice responded to the resolution with the following statement:
“Today’s resolution is yet another hyperpartisan hit job drafted by Democrats with zero input from the other side of the aisle that does nothing to move us forward,” said Congressman Hice. “If Democrats were serious about changing the rhetoric in Washington, this resolution would address at least a few of the egregious remarks made by Members in their own caucus. Instead of wasting our time on empty Congressional disapprovals attacking our president, my colleagues and I should come together and work with him to address the crisis along our southern border. Without question, America is the greatest country the world has ever seen—and that’s something everyone living in America should be proud of. It is extremely disappointing to hear politicians on the Left continually disparage American ideals and values as they seek to turn the United States into a socialist country. I will continue to fight alongside the President to prevent that from happening.”
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 head and a racist heart in your chest," she tweeted.
The four-page Democratic resolution, which seemed certain to pass the House with few if any GOP votes, "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 not belong in Congress or in the United States of America."
All but goading Republicans, the resolution included a full page of remarks by President Ronald Reagan, who is revered by the GOP. Reagan said in 1989 that if the U.S. shut its doors to newcomers, "our leadership in the world would soon be lost."
Republican leaders were lobbying GOP lawmakers hard to oppose the resolution.
McCarthy called the measure "all politics," and No. 3 House GOP leader Liz Cheney of Wyoming said the four Democrats "are wrong when they attempt to impose the fraud of socialism on the American people."
The showdown came after years of Democrats bristling over anti-immigrant and racially incendiary pronouncements by Trump. Those include his kicking off his presidential campaign by proclaiming many Mexican migrants to be criminals and asserting there were "fine people" on both sides at a 2017 neo-Nazis rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that turned deadly.
And the strong words in Washington come as actions are underway elsewhere: The administration has begun coast-to-coast raids targeting migrants in the U.S. illegally and has newly restricted access to the U.S. by asylum seekers.
Trump's criticism was aimed at four freshman Democrats who have garnered attention since their arrival in January for their 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 the U.S. except for Omar, who came to the U.S. as a child after fleeing Somalia with her family.
The four have been in an increasingly personal clash with Democratic Speaker Pelosi, too, over how assertively the House should be in trying to restrain Trump's ability to curb immigration. But if anything, Trump's tweets have served to ease some of that tension, with Pelosi telling Democrats at a closed-door meeting Tuesday, "We are offended by what he said about our sisters," according to an aide in the room who described the private meeting on condition of anonymity.
That's not to say that all internal Democratic strains are resolved.
The four rebellious freshmen joined Rep. Steven Cohen of Tennessee and a handful of others who wanted the House to vote on a harsher censure of Trump's tweets. And Rep. Al Green of Texas could try forcing a House vote soon on whether to impeach Trump — a move he's tried in the past but lost, earning opposition from most Democrats.
At the Senate Republicans' weekly lunch Tuesday, Trump's tweets came up and some lawmakers were finding the situation irksome, participants said. Many want the 2020 campaigns to focus on progressive Democrats' demands for government-provided health care, abolishing the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and other 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 the Trump tweets.
___
AP reporters Jill Colvin, Zeke Miller and Jonathan Lemire and Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed.
MORE HEADLINES