George Conway’s group: Trump tweets ‘should be rejected by every American’

A group of conservative and libertarian lawyers including George Conway are condemning President Trump’s tweets targeting female minority Democratic lawmakers as “racist” and saying that they “should be rejected by every American.” 

The group, known as Checks and Balances, said in a statement issued late Monday afternoon that the president’s tweets telling those lawmakers to “go back” to the “totally broken and crime infested places from which they came” are “of a piece with his nativist nature and at odds with the uplifting promise of our Nation.”

“As conservatives or libertarians, we have profound disagreements with the policies advocated by the Congressional targets of Trump’s tweets,” the group’s statement reads. “But they, like all Americans, are entitled to be treated with respect.”

{mosads}The lawyers — whose group includes former Republican administration officials such as Donald Ayer and Charles Fried — also criticized GOP lawmakers for not swiftly and unequivocally criticizing Trump’s tweets.

“We refuse to share the silence of most of the Republican caucus in Congress, whose timidity in the face of this abhorrent behavior reflects the debased politics of the day,” the statement reads. “We add our voices to those who condemn the President’s ignorant racist nature and urge all citizens of whatever party to join us in rejecting a politics of division that is an affront to the rule of law.”

George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, has been a frequent and public critic of the president.

He and the other members of Checks and Balances formed the group last year, with the goal of getting fellow conservatives to speak out against the Trump administration.

Trump has faced widespread backlash for his tweets targeting the four congresswomen, widely interpreted to be Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.). All four are U.S. citizens, and only Omar was born outside the U.S.

The president on Sunday first accused the four lawmakers “who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe” of “viciously telling the people of the United States 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,” he tweeted.

The message was met with immediate condemnation from Democrats, who labeled the remarks “racist” and “xenophobic.” Trump dug in on his remarks on Monday, denying he was being racist and accusing the lawmakers of being anti-Semitic. 

“They can leave. And you know what? I’m sure that there will be many people that won’t miss them. But they have to love our country. They’re congresspeople,” he said.

Most Republicans remained silent over the weekend, though several spoke out against the president’s remarks after his public comments on Monday.