The US House of Representatives adopted a resolution on Tuesday night condemning US President Donald Trump’s remarks against several junior members of Congress.
Some 240 supported the condemnation and 187 were against it. All Democrats voted in favor of the resolution, joined by four Republican representatives and one Independent.
According to the resolution, the House “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, by referring to immigrants and asylum seekers as ‘invaders,’ and by saying 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.”
The resolution goes on to declare that the Congress 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.
Congress, it said, “is committed to keeping America open to those lawfully seeking refuge and asylum from violence and oppression, and those who are willing to work hard to live the American Dream, no matter their race, ethnicity, faith or country of origin.”
Since Sunday, the president has engaged in a battle on Twitter with four female members of Congress – Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – calling them antisemitic, Communist and anti-American.
Earlier on Tuesday, the president defended his remarks, tweeting: “Those Tweets were NOT Racist. I don’t have a Racist bone in my body!”
He added that “the so-called vote to be taken is a Democrat con game. Republicans should not show ‘weakness’ and fall into their trap. This 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.”
Trump encouraged Republican representatives to “Get a list of the HORRIBLE things they have said. Omar is polling at 8%, Cortez at 21%. Nancy Pelosi tried to push them away, but now they are forever wedded to the Democrat Party. See you in 2020!”