WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives formally condemned Donald Trump on Tuesday for xenophobic attacks on four minority Democratic lawmakers and hostile language targeting immigrants, as the president denied accusations of racism.
Top Republican leaders rallied around Trump, but four members of the president’s party voted with the 235 Democrats to condemn him for “racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color.”
One independent lawmaker also supported the measure, which takes aim at Trump’s weekend tweets telling a group of progressive Democratic congresswomen of color to “go back” to other countries.
The resolution also takes the president to task for “referring to immigrants and asylum seekers as ‘invaders.’“
Trump has a long history of pandering to white suspicions about other ethnic groups, and the resolution criticizes him for “saying that Members of Congress who are immigrants (or those of our colleagues who are wrongly assumed to be immigrants) do not belong in Congress or in the United States of America.”
Democrats hold a majority in the 435-member House but are outnumbered by Republicans in the Senate, where the resolution is unlikely to be considered.
The four congresswomen — all but one of whom were born in the US — are of Hispanic, Arab, Somali and African-American descent.
Trump has stuck by the provocative comments.
“Our Country is Free, Beautiful and Very Successful. If you hate our Country, or if you are not happy here, you can leave!” the president tweeted Tuesday.
Democratic leaders denounced Trump’s remarks, and rallied around the lawmakers — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley.
Omar is the only one born outside the United States.
Slamming the “so-called vote” as a “Democrat con game,” Trump urged Republicans not to “show ‘weakness’ and fall into their trap.”
“Those Tweets were NOT Racist. I don’t have a Racist bone in my body!” Trump said.
“This should be a vote on the filthy language, statements and lies told by the Democrat Congresswomen, who I truly believe, based on their actions, hate our Country,” he wrote.
“Nancy Pelosi tried to push them away, but now they are forever wedded to the Democrat Party,” Trump added, in a jab at the House speaker who has had a tenuous relationship with the four left-leaning first-term congresswomen.
Speaking on the House floor prior to the vote, Pelosi said: “Every single member of this institution, Democratic and Republican, should join us in condemning the president’s racist tweets.”
“To do anything less would be a shocking rejection of our values and a shameful abdication of our oath of office to protect the American people.”
“I know racism when I see it. I know racism when I feel it. And at the highest level of government, there’s no room for racism,” Representative John Lewis, an American civil rights icon, said in remarks on the House floor.
Trump’s repeated attacks appear to be aimed at galvanizing his mostly white electoral base ahead of the 2020 presidential vote.
“See you in 2020!” said Trump, who before becoming president pushed the racist “birther” conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not born in the United States.
Ocasio-Cortez dismissed Trump’s denial that he is a racist.
“You’re right, Mr. President — you don’t have a racist bone in your body,” she tweeted. “You have a racist mind in your head, and a racist heart in your chest.”
She also took aim at Republican lawmakers who voted against the resolution, telling CBS News that “they could not bring themselves to have the basic human decency to vote against the statement that the president made.”
Trump meanwhile took to Twitter on Tuesday night to hail “how unified the Republican Party was on today’s vote.”
While some Republican members of Congress have condemned Trump’s remarks, House Republican leaders closed ranks behind the president.
“This is all about politics,” said House Republican minority leader Representative Kevin McCarthy of California.
Senator Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, said “the president is not a racist.”
Immediately after the House vote a Democratic congressman, Al Green of Texas, filed articles of impeachment against Trump.
Dozens of other Democratic members of the House have reportedly called for an impeachment inquiry to be opened against the president but Pelosi has said she does not favor such a move at the moment.
US House votes to condemn Trump’s ‘racist comments’
US House votes to condemn Trump’s ‘racist comments’
- Trump has a long history of pandering to white suspicions about other ethnic groups
- Trump’s repeated attacks appear to be aimed at galvanizing his mostly white electoral base ahead of the 2020 presidential vote
Trump says Greenland will ‘work out’ after Denmark fails to bridge gap
- Trump has appeared emboldened on Greenland — which he views as in the US backyard — since ordering a deadly January 3 attack in Venezuela that removed president Nicolas Maduro
WASHINGTON, United States: US President Donald Trump held open the possibility Wednesday for a resolution on his designs over Greenland after Denmark’s top diplomat said he failed to change the administration’s mind on wanting to conquer the island.
The foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland, an autonomous territory under Copenhagen’s sovereignty, met at the White House with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a meeting the visitors had requested to clear up “misunderstandings” after Trump’s bellicose language toward the fellow NATO member.
Trump, speaking after the meeting which he did not attend, for the first time sounded conciliatory on Greenland, acknowledging Denmark’s interests even if he again said he was not ruling out any options.
“I have a very good relationship with Denmark, and we’ll see how it all works out. I think something will work out,” Trump said without explaining further.
He again said Denmark was powerless if Russia or China wanted to occupy Greenland, but added: “There’s everything we can do.”
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, speaking after leaving the White House, said a US takeover of Greenland was “absolutely not necessary.”
“We didn’t manage to change the American position. It’s clear that the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland,” Lokke told reporters.
“We therefore still have a fundamental disagreement, but we also agree to disagree.”
He said the issue was “very emotional” for the people of Greenland and Denmark, a steadfast US ally whose troops died alongside Americans in Afghanistan and, controversially, Iraq.
“Ideas that would not respect territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark and the right of self-determination of the Greenlandic people are, of course, totally unacceptable,” Lokke said.
He nonetheless said the tone was “constructive” and said the sides would form a committee that would meet within weeks to see if there was possible headway.
Referring to the British prime minister who trumpeted his diplomacy with Hitler, Lokke said, “I am not a Chamberlain to say “Peace for our time,” but we must seize the opportunities that present themselves.”
Mocking tone
While the talks were underway, the White House posted on X: “Which way, Greenland man?“
The post included a drawing of two dogsleds — one heading toward the White House and a huge US flag, and the other toward Chinese and Russian flags over a lightning-bathed Kremlin and Great Wall of China.
Neither country has claimed Greenland, and Lokke said no Chinese ship had been spotted there in a decade and that there were no major Chinese investments.
Denmark promised ahead of the meeting to ramp up its military presence further in the vast, sparsely populated and strategically located island.
Trump has derided recent Danish efforts to increase security for Greenland as amounting to “two dogsleds.” Denmark says it has invested almost $14 billion in Arctic security.
Denmark also announced immediate military exercises that will include aircraft, vessels and soldiers, with Sweden also participating.
In another show of solidarity with Denmark following Trump’s threats, Germany and France both said Wednesday they will send troops to Greenland. German’s defense ministry said it would send a 13-person team.
Signs of relief
On the quiet streets of the capital Nuuk, red and white Greenlandic flags flew in shop windows, on apartment balconies, and on cars and buses, in a show of national unity during the talks.
Ivaana Egede Larsen, 43, said she felt relief that the meeting appeared to be cordial.
“I am more calm now, and I feel more safe. I had felt very much unsafe lately,” she said.
In Copenhagen, Thomas Fallesen, 56, voiced similar sentiments.
“They are now at least talking together instead of talking through the press. I think it’s a very positive thing,” he said.
Vance, who slammed Denmark as a “bad ally” during an uninvited visit to Greenland last year, is known for a hard edge, which was on display when he publicly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office last February.
Wednesday’s meeting, however, was closed to the press, meaning there was no on-camera confrontation.
Trump has appeared emboldened on Greenland — which he views as in the US backyard — since ordering a deadly January 3 attack in Venezuela that removed president Nicolas Maduro.
