Trump ups attacks on 4 Dems as furor rises

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, under fire for comments that even members of his own party called racist, amplified his attacks on four Democratic congresswomen of color on Monday, saying that they hated America and that one of the first two Muslims elected to Congress sympathized with al-Qaida.

In an extraordinary back-and-forth, Trump appeared to revel in the viciousness of his brawl with the four progressive women who have become the young faces of the Democratic Party. He goaded them into a response from Capitol Hill in which they denounced his rhetoric and policies, charging that he was pressing the agenda of white nationalists from the White House.

“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,” said Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., the target of Trump’s most outrageous charges. “This is the agenda of white nationalists, whether it is happening in chat rooms, or it is happening on national TV, and now it’s reached the White House garden.”

The exchange was the latest episode in a presidency in which Trump has skittered from condemnations of black athletes kneeling during the national anthem to insults lobbed at developing countries to a defense of protesters at a white supremacist march. But now Trump is going after members of the majority party in the House, capable of fighting back.

The congresswomen vowed not to be baited into a sprint to the bottom with a president they condemned as racist, xenophobic, misogynistic and criminal. Their leader, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, pledged to put a resolution on the floor condemning the president’s language — putting Republicans in the House on defense.

But Trump showed no sign of relenting. Even as the four spoke, he was on Twitter calling them “radical Democrats” and Twitter-shouting, “IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY HERE, YOU CAN LEAVE!”

It was a message the president appeared determined to amplify throughout the day.

“They’re free to leave if they want,” Trump said Monday morning of the congresswomen, referring to Reps. Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

On Sunday, he tweeted that the women known as “the squad” should “go back” to the countries they came from, a well-worn racist trope that dates back centuries.

On Monday, he added that Omar, a Somali refugee and the only one not born in the United States, was an al-Qaida sympathizer — a false charge that she said she would not “dignify” with an answer.

“Every time there is a white supremacist who attacks or there is a white man who kills in a school or in a movie theater, or in a mosque, or in a synagogue, I don’t expect my white community members to respond on whether they love that person or not,” she said.

At their news conference, the four condemned rhetoric that they said was intended to distract from what they called brutal, misguided policies and misconduct in office.

“This is simply a disruption and a distraction from the callous, chaotic and corrupt culture of this administration,” said Pressley, who made a point of not referring to the president by name, instead calling him “the occupant of the White House.”

Trump repeatedly sought refuge in what he insisted was broad public agreement with his inflammatory comments. “A lot of people love it by the way,” the president said. Asked whether he was concerned that his comments were racist and being embraced by white supremacists, who took to Twitter to cheer them, Trump shrugged.

“It doesn’t concern me, because many people agree with me,” Trump said. “All I’m saying is if they want to leave, they can leave now.”

But even as he spoke, a handful of Republicans joined achorus of Democrats in criticizing his posts, a rare break that demonstrated the degree to which the latest episode is being regarded as a new low for a president who has shown a penchant for diminishing the level of discourse.

Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, wrote on Twitter that the president’s tweets “were racist and he should apologize,” adding, “We must work as a country to rise above hate, not enable it.” And Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, the lone African American among House Republicans, called the president’s remarks “racist and xenophobic.”

Others gently distanced themselves from the tweets — “aim higher,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said during an interview on Fox News — but grabbed the opportunity to criticize the policies for which the squad has advocated.

Scott and Hurd said the president’s remarks were particularly detrimental because they appeared to unify Democrats at a time when they had been engaged in an internal dispute about race.

For months there has been a rift between Pelosi and the four lawmakers, and last week tensions grew when Pelosi pointedly said they had no following in Congress. The four lawmakers opposed a $4.6 billion aid package for the border, approved by Congress, because they said it supported Trump’s immigration policies.

Cornell Belcher, a Democratic pollster and strategist, said Trump’s latest remarks reflected a broader strategy to use the same kind of racial animus that helped propel his 2016 presidential bid to bolster his base for his 2020 re-election push.

“He’s crazy like a fox, and it only makes perfectly good sense for him to go back to what got him here in the first place, which is driving this racial angst in the electorate,” Belcher said.