The nonbinding resolution condemns Trump’s recent comments on Twitter and to reporters against a group of Democratic congressmembers, all women of color, who have become fierce critics of his policies. The vote was 240 for and 187 against in the Democrat-controlled body, following party lines except for four Republicans who crossed the aisle and one Independent.
The four Democrats are Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. They’re part of a group of fiery liberal women elected last November who’ve dubbed themselves “the Squad,” and have found themselves in conflict as much with Trump as with the leaders of their own party.
However, Trump forced the Democrats to unify this past Sunday when he unleashed a slew of attacks on the four women, telling them to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
“You can’t leave fast enough,” his tweets said. Subsequent comments saw him double down on that position.
Debate on the House floor at times focused on how to actually label Trump’s words.
“The chair is prepared to rule the words of the gentlewoman from California … should not be used in debate,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s speech in which she called Trump’s words “racist.” That particular vote ended with the US House siding to not strike Pelosi’s words from the congressional record, with 231 votes against the strike and 190 in favor.
Tuesday’s resolution charges that with his comments, Trump has “legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color by saying that our fellow Americans who are immigrants, and those who may look to the President like immigrants, should ‘go back’ to other countries, by referring to immigrants and asylum seekers as ‘invaders,’ and by 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.”
The resolution subsequently affirmed that the House of Representatives “believes that immigrants and their descendants have made America stronger, and that those who take the oath of citizenship are every bit as American as those whose families have lived in the United States for many generations;” and that it “is committed to keeping America open to those lawfully seeking refuge and asylum from violence and oppression, and those who are willing to work hard to live the American Dream, no matter their race, ethnicity, faith, or country of origin.”