Trump enters into feud with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, progressive freshman congresswomen
Was Trump's tweet about Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, progressive Democrats racist? panel reaction and analysis on 'The Ingraham Angle.'
President Trump fired back Tuesday at the four freshman congresswomen who denounced his administration and renewed calls for his impeachment at a rare joint press conference, claiming Democrats have given them a "free pass" for their "vile" language and challenging colleagues to rebuke them.
House Democrats, in fact, are planning to formally rebuke Trump for weekend tweets urging those same lawmakers to "go back" to where they came from -- though all but one of them was born in America. But the president, while refusing to back down from his statements, has sought to chastise Democrats for rallying to the side of those lawmakers.
“The Democratic Congresswomen have been spewing some of the most vile, hateful, and disgusting things ever said by a politician in the House or Senate, & yet they get a free pass and a big embrace from the Democrat Party,” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning. “Horrible anti-Israel, anti-USA, pro-terrorist & public shouting of the F…word, among many other terrible things, and the petrified Dems run for the hills.”
He added: “Why isn’t the House voting to rebuke the filthy and hate laced things they have said? Because they are the Radical Left, and the Democrats are afraid to take them on. Sad!”
The lawmakers he's referring to are Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley.
All four congresswomen held a press conference on Monday to address the president's prior statements against them. Omar described Trump's rhetoric as "garbage," accused him of carrying out "the agenda of white nationalists," and said his remarks were a "blatantly racist attack on four duly elected members of the United States House of Representatives, all of whom are women of color."
Tlaib said Trump was running a "lawless" administration and joined her colleagues in calling for his impeachment.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who until recently was engaged in a public war of words with the “Squad” freshmen, has in the wake of the controversy called for a resolution to condemn Trump’s comments, which she labeled as “xenophobic.” This is expected to be considered Tuesday.
Omar previously has been criticized by prominent members of both parties for making remarks widely deemed anti-Semitic. The House failed to pass a resolution condemning her directly, instead altering the message to condemn hate in general, including from the right.
During Monday's press conference, Omar defended herself, saying, "Every single statement that we make is from a place of extreme love for every single person in this country."
Trump's reference Tuesday to profane language was likely related to Tlaib's famous vow to "impeach the motherf-----."
TRUMP BROADSIDES UNITE WARRING DEMS – BUT FOR HOW LONG?
Trump’s accusation that the Democratic establishment is reluctant to take any action against the four congresswomen follows several days of ugly comments between party members. After Pelosi dismissed them as just being “four people” who “didn’t have any following” in Congress, Ocasio-Cortez accused the speaker of targeting women of color.
The internal feuding only paused when Trump posted his tweets about those lawmakers Sunday morning -- saying the "Democrat Congresswomen" should go back and fix the "corrupt" and "crime infested places" they came from and then "come back and show us how it's done."
Fox News' Gregg Re contributed to this report.
