President Trump knocks Rashida Tlaib for 2016 speech: 'This is not a sane person'
Trump mocks progressive 'Squad' member Rep. Rashida Tlaib at a summit for the conservative student group Turning Point USA.
President Trump on Tuesday, in his latest broadside against the so-called “Squad” of progressive lawmakers, called Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib a “crazed lunatic” after video resurfaced over the weekend showing her shouting as she was dragged out of a Trump speech in 2016.
“She’s like a crazed lunatic,” Trump said at a summit for the conservative student group Turning Point USA in Washington. “She’s screaming just before she got into Congress. Who elected her? She’s screaming like a total lunatic at one of our rallies.”
TRUMP CALLS SQUAD ‘NIGHTMARE FOR AMERICA,’ SAYS OMAR WILL HELP HIM WIN HOME STATE IN 2020
He added: “This is not a sane person, folks, when you look at that. And this is what we’re up against.”
Trump’s comments are the latest attack against a member of the so-called “Squad” made up of Tlaib, Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass. He has argued they should leave the United States if they don’t love America, provoking accusations of racism.
“There’s no way she stands for the values of the people of Michigan,” Trump said of Tlaib.
Video of the August 2016 incident, which has gone viral since resurfacing over the weekend, shows Tlaib shouting as then-candidate Trump delivered a speech before business leaders at the Detroit Economic Club. While being escorted out of the room, she continued to jump and yell at those in attendance.
“You guys are crazy!” Tlaib can be heard shouting. Someone off-camera can be heard responding, “You're an animal, get a job!”
After the outburst, Tlaib wrote that she interrupted the event along with “12 other brave women” because “confronting Trump was the most patriotic and courageous act I could pursue.” Tlaib acknowledged the criticism against her for acting in a way “unbecoming of a former state legislator,” but defended her behavior by saying Trump did not deserve “courteous behavior” or “social niceties.”
In his wide-ranging, freewheeling speech to the conservative students, Trump also hit on a variety of topics: he railed against the Russia investigation and former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s upcoming testimony and disputed a recent news story saying his administration has not built any new border fencing, saying he should get credit for renovating barriers.
Earlier Tuesday, in another attack on the "Squad," Trump insisted he will add Minnesota to his win column in the 2020 presidential election because voters will side with him against Omar. “In 2016 I almost won Minnesota,” the president tweeted. “In 2020, because of America hating anti-Semite Rep. Omar, & the fact that Minnesota is having its best economic year ever, I will win the State!”
On Tuesday, he referenced Omar’s recent vow to be a “nightmare” for him and said: “No, AOC Plus 3 are a Nightmare for America!”
Trump, in his attacks on the progressives, has singled out Omar, who was born in Somalia but was granted asylum to the United States in 1995. The president repeatedly accuses her of anti-Semitic and anti-American views.
Fox News’ Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.
