Democrats slam Donald Trump over his racist tweets

Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at their press conference. Pic/AFP

Washington: A livid Democratic Party has introduced a resolution in the US House of Representatives, condemning the "racist" tweets of President Donald Trump against four non-white women lawmakers from the Opposition party.

Trump sparked a furore on Sunday when he said the women lawmakers "originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe" and they should go home.

Though Trump did not explicitly name Democrat Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley in his initial Twitter tirade on Sunday, the context made a clear link to the four Democrat women, who are known as The Squad.

Three of the women were born in the US and one, Omar, was born in Somalia but came to the US as a child. The Democratic Party introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives condemning the alleged racist tweets. The resolution by Congressman Tom Malinowski could be voted on as early as Tuesday.

The Squad slamps Trump
The four women lawmakers held a news conference on Monday to denounce the tweet by the president in which he apparently suggested that they leave the country.

"This is a president who has overseen the most corrupt administration in our history," Omar said. "To distract from that, he's launching a blatantly racist attack on four duly elected members of the United States House of Representatives, all of whom are women of colour," she said.

"This is the agenda of white nationalists, whether it is happening in chat rooms or it's happening on national TV. And now it's reached the White House garden," she said. "This is simply a disruption and a distraction from the callous chaos and corrupt culture of this administration, all the way down," Pressley said.

Both Omar and Tlaib repeated their calls for Trump to be impeached. Trump had in a tweet, widely considered as against the four Democratic progressive lawmakers, said they should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came" before speaking out about how the United States government should be run. On Monday Trump again defended his controversial tweets.

Other leaders disagree with Trump

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Tuesday joined international condemnation of Trump's xenophobic tweets about progressive Democrat congresswomen. "Usually I don't get into other people's politics, but it will be clear to most people that I completely and utterly disagree with him," Ardern told Radio New Zealand. British Prime Minister Theresa May and Canadian leader Justin Trudeau have also condemned Trump's tweets.

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