Ilhan Omar calls Trump’s ‘blatantly racist’ attack on minority lawmakers ‘the agenda of white nationalists’

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) on Monday said President Trump’s attacks on female minority lawmakers Sunday were “blatantly racist” and comparable to “the agenda of white nationalists.”

“This is a president who has overseen the most corrupt administration in our history,” Omar said in a press conference alongside fellow progressive Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.). 

“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 color,” she added. “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.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar on President Trump’s “blatantly racist” tweets: “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” https://t.co/hk4AhBuYRc pic.twitter.com/0cLXoVB25z

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 15, 2019

“He would love nothing more than to divide our country based on race, religion, gender, orientation or immigration status because this is the only way he knows how to prevent the solidarity of us working together across all of our differences,” Omar said.

The comments from Omar came just a day after Trump said in a series of tweets widely considered to be aimed at Omar, Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Pressley that 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. 

{mosads}Trump also claimed that the progressive Democrats “came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe.”

The comments ignited swift backlash from a host of GOP and Democratic lawmakers, many of whom called the remarks racist. Omar and Tlaib renewed calls for Trump to be impeached during the press conference on Monday. 

“It is time for us to stop allowing this president to make a mockery of our Constitution,” Omar said. “It’s time for us to impeach this president.”

Trump, meanwhile, has adamantly defended his remarks, saying that he isn’t concerned about the backlash because “many people agree with me.”