Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) blasted Republicans on Monday over the silence with which many have responded to President Trump’s tweets telling four Democratic congresswomen of color to “go back” to their home countries.
Schumer, speaking from the Senate floor, said Trump’s comments “drip with racism” and questioned if Republicans weren’t commenting “out of embarrassment or agreement.”
“Where are you when something this serious, this bigoted, this un-American happens? If you’re saying to yourself, ‘Well, he got us our big tax credit. Well, he’s taking regulations off big corporations. … We have to go along with this racism,’ you are making a deal with the devil,” Schumer said.
{mosads}Schumer added that people who refuse to denounce Trump’s comments are “fellow travelers on the president’s racist road, whatever their motivation” and said their responses were “insufficient and un-American.”
Trump sparked fierce and widespread backlash — largely from Democrats — on Sunday when he targeted a group of unidentified progressive congresswomen “who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe.”
In the tweets, which appeared to be directed at Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), the president said they should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
All four have been outspoken critics of the Trump administration, and Omar and Tlaib in particular have questioned the relationship between the U.S. and Israel, prompting pushback from Republicans. All four are U.S. citizens, and only Omar was born outside the U.S.
Trump doubled down on his comments Monday during an event at the White House, denying that he was being racist and expressing no remorse when told that white nationalist groups found common cause with his message.
“It doesn’t concern me because many people agree with me,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House during an event designed to highlight American manufacturing.
Republicans have largely remained silent about Trump’s comments, which initially took place when they were scattered across the country over the weekend.
Returning to the Capitol on Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) punted the issue until Tuesday afternoon.
“I’m going to be taking questions tomorrow after lunch at the stakeout. I’d be happy to respond then,” he told a group of reporters.
Some Senate Republicans, however, have spoken out. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Trump should delete his tweet, which she characterized as “way over the line.” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said that “there is no excuse for the president’s spiteful comments.”
“Instead of sharing how the Democratic Party’s far-left, pro-socialist policies — not to mention the hateful language some of their members have used towards law enforcement and Jews — are wrong for the future of our nation, the President interjected with unacceptable personal attacks and racially offensive language,” Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.), the only black Republican senator, said in a statement.
Schumer said he will follow in the footsteps of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who plans to introduce a House resolution condemning Trump’s tweets, and he urged Republicans to support it.
“Speaker Pelosi has said that the House will introduce a resolution denouncing the president’s comments. Our intention is to do the same in the Senate. We’ll see. We’ll see just how many Republicans will sign on,” he said.