Pelosi: Census citizenship question is effort to ‘make America white again’

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) argued Monday that President Trump’s push to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census is an effort to “make America white again” in an adaptation of his campaign slogan.

“This is about keeping — you know his hat — make America white again,” Pelosi said at an event in San Francisco about election security legislation, referring to the red “Make America Great Again” hats that are popular among Trump supporters. 

{mosads}Pelosi, like other critics of adding the citizenship question to the 2020 census, argued that it could result in racial minorities being undercounted so that legislative maps can be drawn more favorably for Republicans.

“They want to make sure that people, certain people, are counted. It’s really disgraceful. And it’s not what our founders had in mind,” Pelosi said. “What they want to do is put a chilling effect so certain populations will not answer the form.”

President Trump told reporters late last week that he is considering an executive order to ensure the citizenship question is included on the census after the Supreme Court blocked the effort in a ruling last month.