After President Donald Trump on Sunday directed a series of racist tweets at Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley, the group of freshman congresswomen known as the “the Squad” rebuked the president for his bigoted remarks and vowed to continue fighting his cruel attacks on immigrants and other vulnerable communities.
“This is what racism looks like,” tweeted Pressley, a Massachusetts congresswoman, after Trump said the freshman Democrats should “go back” to the countries “from which they came.”
Trump’s attack was met with a flood of outrage. By Monday morning, the hashtag #RacistPresident reached the top of Twitter’s trending list.
“We are what democracy looks like,” said Pressley. “And we’re not going anywhere. Except back to D.C. to fight for the families you marginalize and vilify everyday.”
THIS is 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. pic.twitter.com/vYzoxCgN0X
— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) July 14, 2019
Omar, a Minnesota Democrat and the only member of “the Squad” not born in the United States, said Trump is “the worst, most corrupt and inept president we have ever seen.”
“You are stoking white nationalism because you are angry that people like us are serving in Congress and fighting against your hate-filled agenda,” Omar, a Somali refugee, tweeted in response to the president’s attack.
You are stoking white nationalism bc you are angry that people like us are serving in Congress and fighting against your hate-filled agenda.
“America’s answer to the intolerant man is diversity, the very diversity which our heritage of religious freedom has inspired.” -RFK
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) July 14, 2019
Trump’s tweets appeared to echo a segment by Fox News host Tucker Carlson last week, in which he accused Omar of showing “undisguised contempt for the United States” for daring to criticize the nation’s systemic inequities.
The president similarly said the progressive congresswomen are “viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful nation on earth, how our government is to be run.”
“Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” Trump wrote. “Then come back and show us how it is done.”
Tlaib, a Palestinian-American, was the first of the targeted congresswomen to hit back at the president’s remarks.
“Want a response to a lawless and complete failure of a president? He is the crisis,” Tlaib tweeted. “His dangerous ideology is the crisis. He needs to be impeached.”
Ocasio-Cortez followed Tlaib with a series of tweets blasting Trump for relying “on a frightened America for [his] plunder.”
“Mr. President, the country I ‘come from,’ and the country we all swear to, is the United States,” wrote the New York Democrat. “But given how you’ve destroyed our border with inhumane camps, all at a benefit to you and the corp[orations] who profit off them, you are absolutely right about the corruption laid at your feet.”
“You are angry because you can’t conceive of an America that includes us,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “You won’t accept a nation that sees healthcare as a right or education as a #1 priority, especially where we’re the ones fighting for it. You can’t accept that we will call your bluff and offer a positive vision for this country. And that’s what makes you seethe.”
Defying Trump’s right-wing agenda from Day One
Inauguration Day is here, and at Truthout, we plan to defy Trump’s right-wing agenda from Day One.
Looking to the first year of Trump’s presidency, we know that the most vulnerable among us will be harmed. Militarized policing in U.S. cities and at the borders will intensify. The climate crisis will deteriorate further. The erosion of free speech has already begun, and we anticipate more attacks on journalism.
It will be a terrifying four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. But we’re not falling to despair, because we know there are reasons to believe in our collective power.
The stories we publish at Truthout are part of the antidote to creeping authoritarianism. And this year, we promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation, vitriol, hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please show your support for Truthout with a tax-deductible donation (either once today or on a monthly basis).