I consider myself a progressive woman but I would never vote for any of these 4 women because I do not like their approach. Mr. President, not agreeing with their policies is different then hurling racial slurs on them and telling them to go back to their country when 3 out of 4 were born here. The President is making a mockery of his office and so are these 4 women. Pelosi might not be perfect but she has experience . I say to these women, take the opportunity to learn from her experience. You do not have to agree with her but disagree respectfully. Twitter has thrown all civility down the drain.
1534
@ALN
Good points. We've reached a new low in political discourse. And recently, the bar hasn't been that high to begin with. As for President Trump, his tweets likely pleased his supporters, which is the whole game, after all.
81
@ALN Be specific. What is their approach?
119
I am not a Twitter user (I was about a decade ago), but I do have specific accounts bookmarked. I read a lot of AOC's feed last night and there is nothing uncivil in it. She is eloquent even when she's calling out Trump and she spends most of her time pushing for her policies, which seems prudent for a politician, or speaking / demonstrating truth to power, which is refreshing for a politician. Trump is a liar and a bully and the only way to fight people like him is to push back with constant force and pressure like these women or walk away. I am glad they are fighting.
387
Trump is focusing attention on these Far Left firebrands because he and the GOP know that the “progressives” usage of identity politics will sink the Democratic chances of winning the 2020 elections.
So, instead of maintaining cool heads and focusing on winning issues that voters truly care such as health care, pre-existing conditions, jobs and infrastructure, (As in the issues that won us the House in 2018 including key states such as AZ, MI, WI, PA, FL and OH) what do Democrats do? They fall for it again! And just when we need to get our attention AWAY from these unpopular, irritating, high-maintenance, identity-politics obsessed prima donnas, the press focuses right on in on them again.
It’s sad and it’s awful, but Steve Brannon was right: The more the GOP can keep the Democrats all in a lather about racial identity issues, the more power the Republicans gain.
1371
@Annabelle, what are you talking about? "racial identity issues"? That's all Trump and the GOP talk about. White supremacy. Get real. He's the one who started all of this vile nonsense.
242
@SF that's the whole point. It's not what the 4 congress members are talking about, and its not what the Democrats as a whole are talking about, but the GOP talks about it all the time, presumably following advice like Bannon's: it stirs things up and ultimately disadvantages the Democrats more than the GOP. Paradoxical? Sure. The current reality? That too.
86
@Annabelle I Am a devoted Republican and Trump supporter, but you are 100%.
27
As a liberal Democrat, I can hardly wait until both Trump and AOC are out of office.
I do not care for the "my way or the highway" approach of either, or the lack of respect either show to those that disagree with them.
As for Trump, he obviously is worse and his attacks on Ocasio-Cortez are mean spirited and racist.
As for Ocasio-Cortez, she has a golden opportunity to do good things and is wasting that opportunity by attacking anyone who fails to agree with the more absurd elements of her otherwise merit based ideas.
1224
@Texas Duck
You clearly are no liberal and likeTrump are not very well informed about what her ideas are all about.
Texas Duck! You really want to attract attention, say something worthwhile and meaningful.
119
@Texas Duck
WOW! My kind of liberal Democrat!
Thank you for stating what is in my heart.
53
@Texas Duck
This is a false equivalency. It matters not if you're liberal or conservative or what you may think of Ocasio-Cortez.
The President of the United States is hurling the worst kind of nativist invective at members of congress. It is unprecedented, a new low even for him. Americans who tolerate, excuse or ignore this nauseating behavior are complicit.
312
With Trump's behavior and tweets of the last few days, theRepublicans have crossed the Rubicon with him.
Nothing they say now can be seen as anything more than bullying racism where cruelty and humiliation, and naked abuse of power, are the point.
They can dress it up all they want in policy language and political rhetoric. But at this point -- why bother. We know what they are.
3334
@steve only now they have crossed? Think that happened a while ago.
71
@steve
So what? Who cares what we think Steve. That's how the game is played. They guy in power can do whatever he/she wants. Get used to it.
10
They crossed the Rubicon when they blindly supported Reagan’s attack on the people’s government and replaced it with rule by corporations. The Republicans you see today are simply mindless meat robots manufactured in think tanks paid for by bottomless corporate corruption. The human part of Republicans was removed long ago.
157
If an adversary on the other side of the world wanted to diminish the stature of the United States, they could not do anything more effective than to spew racist comments from the White House and broadcast pictures of children crowded in cages. Whether our president is deranged or just despicable, he is out of control; and he is luring this country towards a precipice from which there may be no return. Is there nobody in government who is willing to risk what they have to stop this man?
3638
@Isaac McDaniel-Ok let's go over it again.
The best way to deal with Trump is like the wino or abusive mentally ill person on the corner, ignore them.
If you must deal with them, read them the riot act.
These moronic super leftists are giving Trump exactly what he wants, attention.
Instead of addressing the issues that Trump demagogued, like Biden is doing, these ideologic purists are doubling down like Hillary did, helping Trump get re elected.
Learn from history or forever be condemned to repeat its worst mistakes.
59
@Isaac McDanielIs "Is there nobody in government who is willing to risk what they have to stop this man?"
Don't waste your time waiting for Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz to speak up. Moral cowards to say the least. I am so ashamed of them.
They have forgotten they were elected to represent all of the citizens of Texas, not just those who voted for them. They have lost their way.
246
@Isaac McDaniel
"Is there nobody in government who is willing to risk what they have to stop this man?"
Are you kidding? And risk losing their lucrative paycheck and perks? This is America sir. We make all our decisions based on money and power. Want to know why this sad excuse of a President will see another term? Look only as far as Wall Street. Americans have short memories. GWB killed the economy. Obama brought it back. Now the loud mouth in the Oval Office thinks it was his doing and Americans forgot.
293
I’m more taken aback by Lindsey Graham saying a member of Congress hates the country, more than anything Trump said.
Completely despicable that a member of Congress would think that of a fellow member. No matter how different one’s views, respect that the person loves the country and is fighting for what he or she thinks is best for it. Truly despicable.
1471
@Bob Smith
The concept of “respect” in Congress- in the House, to be specific- disappeared when Newt Gingrich came to town with his Contract with America. Sine then, especially when you throw in the Citizens United decision, total rot has set in. This ebbing away of civility and principles in Congress has been going on for a long time.
123
@Bob Smith, I wish I could share your shock and amazement.
That's not sarcasm either--I truly, truly wish I could.
19
@Bob Smith
Graham called members of Congress "Communists".
37
I'm past ready to vote. Since GOP leadership is not condemning Trump's racist tweets he will become even more emboldened. Sadly there is already so much racism in our country. Trump's public words will empower others to bully and threaten our neighbors and friends in private. I am white but my friends of color have been experiencing heightened bullying. A friend from Vietnam said her neighbor told her to take her Buddah statues and go back where you came from. She's an American citizen! An American-born contractor friend said he arrived at a woman's house to bid on a job and she asked "are you from Mexico? You're not welcome here!" He slowly backed away from her house and left. Ordinary Americans are suffering! I'm sick of writing my Rep congressman but will continue speak out until we vote Trump out!
1399
@NLuG: For better or worse, The US president is the most influential role-model in the land.
26
@NLuG You and all your friends and family will help get out the vote for Democrats - up and down the ticket, even dogcatcher - on November 3, 2020.
If not, there's a chance we'll have 4 more years of this show.
78
@NLuG Interesting that those Republicans in the House and Senate who've publicly "condemned" trump's racist tweets can't help but use the moment to voice their own criticism of the 4 Congresswomen, as well as Democrats in general - with much of the criticism based on falsehoods perpetuated by the GOP/right-wing propaganda machine.
Only 1 or 2 Republicans kept their condemnations solely to trump's racist tweets. All the other Republicans carefully worded their messages of disapproval in such a way that the focus was not on trump's racism, but rather on GOP buzz words such as "socialists", "pro-open borders", etc., in their attempts to portray Democrats in the scariest light possible. Leave it to today's Republicans to turn their denunciation of racism into an opportunity to lob partisan attacks on fellow Americans across the aisle.
What a disgrace.
124
I never thought I'd say this but, he's correct.
25
I don’t pay attention to Trump’s tweets...he’s a temporary presence on the national scene.
But I pay very close attention to what’s been said and done by members of the Democratic Party over these past three years. These ‘representatives’ don’t speak to my interests, nor the long-term interests of the American citizenry whom they’re supposedly sworn to serve.
I’ve never voted Republican in my life, but that’s about to change. You can thank the mendacious and histrionic ‘progressive’ faction of the Democratic Party for that...
13
I appreciate your thoughts, but I have personally had an equal-but-opposite response.
7
@Susanna
Are you sure that you know what they stand for?
Universal Health Care
Green New Deal: creating tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of jobs and saving the planet?
Fairer distribution of taxes so that corporations pay fair share
?
I also don't like "everything" they say, but they are a small minority in the congress.
Think again before you vote for the craven Republican party
14
And do you pay attention to the response or lack thereof of Republicans to their dear leader Trump? Go ahead - vote against the Democrats for some Ralph Nader type who will siphon off enough votes from the only party that currently can save your country from the horror that is Trump and his craven GOP. You’ll be giving your country back to Trump. And the rest of the world will continue to shake our heads in disbelief and sorrow that so many Americans can not see what is so obvious to the rest of us. A great country under Obama and others, a painful disgrace under Trump and the current GOP.
13
This is an "extraordinary back and forth" because the president hit a nerve and the congress members are on the ropes. The readership seems otherwise to misunderstand the context of the president's comment: it has absolutely nothing to do with race, per se, except the liberal Left wants to interpret it that way for political currency. Trump was referring to their attitudes toward the country, which he and millions of Americans feel is hostile, contentious, possibly disloyal and certainly unproductive. That is, they are merely agitating race, ethnicity and sex because that is what they do as a matter of political opportunism that masks their disinterest if not incapacity in actual administration. They should indeed, in these circumstances, go back to whatever place it may be that they call home. Where do they belong? In And, what is it that they actually know how to do?
13
I wonder how many people that say that "everyone that voted for Trump is not a racist" put themselves in the position of a person of color. Yes, not everyone that voted for Trump is a racist, but if your political leanings and beliefs allow you to vote for someone who is clearly a racist that is still an issue. Now, I say this a person of color, so think about that before you, as a white person, decide to tell me how to feel about my experience and my oppression. I think that is the real issue, that people of color have to tolerate racism and then we also have to tolerate white folks explaining racism to us. If a person of color feels strongly enough to tell you that any of your actions are racist, then I suggest you listen. Because we never win in these situations, we are always angry, problematic or out of line. Not to mention that we have to sit down and listen to a white person (more often than not a straight white male) explain our experience to us when they don't have a clue. All this to say that no, not everyone that voted for Trump is a racist. However, if you are okay voting for him over another candidate because of party affiliation, or even worse because it will save you some tax money, in spite of his racist and xenophobic behavior then you don't care about people who look like me.
2031
@Jorge Núñez
Racism is one issue among dozens. If someone cares more about, say, expanding oil drilling more than race relations, it is perfectly understandable that that person could vote for a racist driller.
12
@Jorge Núñez I appreciate that he may offend you, as he does me but your analysis is not very deep. Most people in this country are single issue voters (i.e. they're either for/against guns, abortion, taxes & spending, etc.) - so trying to smear others with epithets because they voted on their one issue is not an effective strategy for catalyzing change. Go deeper.
25
@vbering No, I'm sorry, that's simply not true. To presume that you can't find a candidate who isn't racist and yet supports a worthwhile cause is pure fallacy. If anything, I'd call it a fairy tale of propaganda and a handy excuse.
There are plenty of qualified people in the world to fight for all causes. That you would accept someone as a racist in such a position means simply not caring hard enough to look for both a qualified human being and one that is also worthwhile of holding the position.
78
The four women have complained about the US continuously and have relished playing the victim. Trump's comments have nothing to do with race.
15
Exactly
They all four seem to disparage and despise the US
Imperfect, but there is much much goodness here.
Opportunity for people of color is much much different (better) than years ago.
Celebrate the continued progress or spout hatred and barbs all day long against the US and against capitalism?
The wacky squad of kids seems to want to follow in the footsteps of Hugo Chavez. Please study the economic history of socialism, and understandable misery it causes.
4
What a shame that the POTUS speaks of unity on the 4th of July and by the 15th, he's doubling down on his own use of racist lies and divisive mischaracterizations about his fellow compatriots, public servants, and Americans. Sensible Americans see this controversy for what it truly is: yet another distraction from a reality show president* who is bad at his job. At the end of the day, I'm less concerned about the future of a Democratic party offering voters decency and inclusion than I am of the future of a Republican party complicit in racism, xenophobia, and dishonesty.
321
@Tony C
Sorry Tony, you misunderstood Trump. He was talking about unifying his BASE against the rest of the country.
5
@JM
With weapons by his side.
1
I think it's great, the occupant in the White House, is making these remarks. It is bringing out the hidden racist thoughts and behaviors of individuals. I have been shocked discovering I have friends and family members who share his thoughts. As long as these feelings are buried they can't be dealt with. I don't know why anyone is not replying that Mr. Trump should "go back where he came from." This doesn't make sense when this is where you are from. He could leave though because he seems to have friends, real-estate and businesses inn other countries, that would welcome him. I would like to go, but my ancestors have been here since the 1700s. I'm German, English, French and my teaching degree would not transfer if I applied for work. I can't leave.
149
You assume that other countries would welcome him. I'm not so sure.
11
@Dawn Fosnaugh
If Trump suggested that a first generation immigrant from England should "go back where he came from", would that be considered racist? I bet it wouldn't, despite the obvious illogic of conflating where that person is from with where that person's parents are from. Yet the same suggestion made to a person of color is interpreted as racist, even though the reason for the suggestion has everything to do with that person's political opinions, and nothing to do with that person's race.
3
@Dawn Fosnaugh Agreed. That is why the free speech of bigots and neonazis is not to be blocked by government or monopoly corporations. We need to be able to count their rifles, figuratively speaking. Trump has vastly accelerated this process, and now we know their true social and political weight. They are a distinct and declining minority, and they know it. That is why they behave the way they do. But we now have an accurate map to how to politically defeat them. For once and for all. Only then can the USA begin to transcend its own past and begin to live up to MLK's dream.
4
3 of these women were born in the United States. It is too bad that our president does not know that these locations are within our national borders. When I was in school, this information was taught in the 5th grade.
But unfortunately, calling Trump stupid is not going to solve the problem. Calling him racist does not address the issue. He is using tactics of the National Socialists, regardless of what we call him. We are going to need a pretty strong narrative in order to beat this!!!!! Unity.
4
I see a silver lining to Mr. Trump's pathetic behavior today. He has put to rest any lingering doubts about the capabilities of women leaders. Here today we have four young women under verbal attack by the President of the United States, and they still managed to present themselves as intelligent, poised, knowledgeable, reassuring. Meanwhile the much older, wealthier, whiter, powerful Trump is overreacting, histrionic, gullible, incredibly ignorant, impulsive, silly, etc.
6
Sadly this will only fire up Trump 's base. Trump is the symptom not the disease, all of these articles will do nothing to sway the election. NY times please write about the disease and maybe we will have a chance of making sure Trump is a one term president.
1
There is a difference between attacking a person's race, and pointing out that 1st generation or 2nd generation immigrants should be the BEST of us at valuing what America is, versus trying to tear the country down to be replaced by failed policies from 3rd world countries people are fleeing in droves.
Tact has never been the President's strong point, but the spirit of his comment is not racist, it is fundamentally ideological.
It is the same as me telling someone who wants Communism to move to Venezuela and stop trying to destroy our country. Harsh? yes. Presidential? no. Racists? no.
193
The spirit of this language Is unconscionable and it is absolutely racist and xenophobic. He could have chosen to address their policies and initiatives, but he chose not to do so. Many Americans welcome civil discourse rooted in policy, not public rants reminiscent of Jim Crow speech and hatred. We shouldn’t tolerate birtherism, his remarks post Charlottesville, and not this. We are better than this and we are better than Donald Trump.
339
@kormathaw
This self-serving and baseless assertion that sitting members of Congress are trying to "tear the country down," so ipso facto Trump isn't a racist, does not account for why he then accused racism of the people he told to get out of 'his' country.
131
Failed policies? Like regime change, sanctions and propping up corrupt governments in the interest of US and global corp profits? Our meddling in our "backyard" is a history you would do well to acquaint yourself with.
91
All I see is America in chaos. Laughing stock of the world. You can blame Trump, but Democrats need to be careful because this is what he wants. Chaos. A big raucous and another 4 years Trump and the GOP turncoats like Lindsey Graham.
1
Trump can leave any time he wants, too. There are any number of dictators around the world who would welcome him and his family with open arms.
At least until he cross them. At which point he might, somewhere in the recesses of his damaged brain, grasp the cruel nature of subverting democracy.
1
Trump’s a racist scam artist and he’s free to leave this country (upon his resignation as part of a plea bargain) to go to any number of foreign countries where his ignorance and appreciation of authoritarian rule would make him feel more at home. The Philippines? Russia? Saudi Arabia? I’d say North Korea but I hear the golf courses there are pretty sketchy. Until we can get rid of him with our votes, he will continue to work to divide Americans for his own political gain. All but his most gullible followers know it’s not about making America great. It’s about keeping Trump in office until the statute of limitations prevents him from being indicted on criminal charges once he’s not protected by the immunity currently shielding him as President. This side show is just Trump crooning to the worst part of his base - again. As for his apparent belief that he’s tricked Pelosi and company into “embracing” the squad and that this works to his favor somehow, it’s yet another example of Trump the bully not understanding most Americans don’t like bullys. Most Americans didn’t vote for him in 2016, and hopefully even more will have seen this guy’s true colors by 2020: fake tan, dyed blonde and a black heart.
2
This is how a demagogue with few accomplishments campaigns. Republicans riding his coattails better prepare to be dragged through ALL the mud. Is Twitter going to continue provide a bullhorn for Trump's racist, anti-American attacks on elected US Representatives?
3
The current occupant of the White House's behavior reminds me of the saying about the futility of wrestling with a pig. You get covered in mud and the pig loves it. Now we have our very own brawling pig in charge of the country. I cannot say our president because it sticks in my craw. He is not presidential and to a lot of people that really matters. Dignity matters. Respect matters even more. It does to me.
I thought George W. Bush was a poor president, but he seemed to be a decent man, if inept. The current occupant of the White House is inept too, but also a crass dunderhead. He just doesn't get that respect has to be earned; it's not a entitlement of his social position, like so much else in his superficial lifestyle.
Many posters are suggesting that this abhorrent behavior is a calculated play for votes. I think it's far simpler. I think he is simply a thug and a sadist. He enjoys inflicting pain for all perceived slights directed at him.
5
and while he's blathering his blather what are the republicans really doing. trump's just their megaphone of hatred to get all the media excited, which doesn't take much anymore - that's where his genius really is and it works beautifully. Anyone talking about Mueller? The children in cages? Etc.
1
Racists who don't like an America with people of color and immigrants, including Trump, are welcome to go back to the countries from which the came. and Republicans like Graham and Trump, who say Democrats are socialists and communists, are really saying they want to take away your Medicare and social security.
1
Let's just stay asleep, condemming and disecting Trump's latest diversion. That way we can avoid the hard work that is the price we pay for seeing through his tactics. Why aren't people smarter about this?
Maybe it isn't a good idea to decry racism when you are talking about a white man saying outrageous things, but then seem to conflate that behaviour as typical of white people.
Isn't that just the same thing Trump is doing?
2
The current US government is worthless and corroded to the core. GOP's complicit indifference to Trump's nativist bigotry makes the United States irredeemable and a liability to humanity.
This does nothing but reinforce the prevailing stereotype that white Americans are lazy, uneducated and have never had to fight for anything in their lives, except for a place in line at the All You Can Eat buffet.
1
Hating the leader is equal to hating the country; a common equation of dictatorship.
5
I think Trump had a few setbacks in the last few days, the census question, being called an imbecile by the British ambassador and this is just a distraction to feed his white nationalist base. Bread and circuses. It's just really sad to see the US go so low.
1
Clearly Trump is a racist. He says so himself. But being a declared racist won't be enough to defeat him or to right the toxic atmosphere of fear he's created for asylum seekers, immigrants, naturalized citizens, the children of immigrants, or deracinated white men with historical amnesia syndrome who are fearful that hordes of brown people and women are coming to take their jobs. UnChristian Evangelicals and cowardly Republicans have a lot to answer for in enabling the downward spiral into making American a fearful, horrible place for those we most need to build and maintain the United States as a decent, thriving country. The Republicans are a do-nothing party for the United States. The best thing to do is vote these people out of the white house and the senate and keep the house blue in 2020.
2
Trump is finished. He can not get away with this kind of rhethoric any longer and that’s really the only trick he has up his sleeve.
2
I have a great idea... why doesn’t Donald Trump go back to NYC and solve all its problems?! He certainly doesn’t have a clue how to handle this country’s problems!
5
Trump's father and grandfather were simply lucky that they weren't kicked out of the country after World War I, considering the vicious anti-German sentiment that existed across United States.
And if they were, well then, the current racist reactionary occupying the White House would have never been born. What a shame that the citizens of 1919 didn't take action based upon the wishes of 2019's false prophet.
3
White nationalists got Trump elected in 2016 so why wouldn't he throw support their way. He wants to be re-elected in 2020 and knows he will need their support and votes. Trump has been a racist his entire life following his father's lead; each took racially motivated decisions in their real estate businesses. Personally, I see Trump as a disgrace to American values. Then maybe I am wrong as it is possible, quite likely it seems, that a core American value is racism.
This article should have quoted all of Lindsey Graham ‘s comment which was despicable. Instead only his softer words were included here, giving a completely false impression that Graham had “gently distanced” himself from Trump!
Mitch McConnell, you have no morals when you are unable to condemn Trump’s overt racist tweets!
4
Trump is a fool and as the president he just gave these four more progressive democrats the stature that most politicians can only dream. In response, their rebuttal was mature, measured and articulate. In Politics they always say never punch down, Trump not only punched down, but made the four into political contenders to the chagrin of his party of plutocrats.
With their diminishing demographics and the empowerment of the new left, their buffoon president may help free us from their St. Reagan’s cherished vodo-economics of tax cuts and deregulation, expanding deficits, a runaway military industrial complex and the transfer of the country’s wealth to their friends the plutocrats.
2
"The congresswomen vowed not to be baited into a sprint to the bottom with a president they condemned as racist, xenophobic, misogynistic and criminal."
This is WRONG. What is required is for someone to TAKE HIM ON and NOT give in. He's not a thinker - he regards it as a victory when he has the last word.
For ONCE, it'll be good for someone to keep going at him. Sometimes, you must rebuke a fool lest he thinks himself wise.
1
It is times that these four naive inexperienced junior congresswomen kept still.
It is hard to respect them for behaving as childishly as the president in these mean Tit for tat exchanges with him. They should drop it!
If they don’t they could cost the Democrats the 2020 election. The time to speak up is after the election. Right now they are simply demeaning the party and that pleases Trump since he is playing with them.
1
So Trump just declared how he's going to fight the next election: Lies, racism, nationalism and pseudo dictatorial aircraft displays and fireworks. Dems need to make a plan and stick to it. Are they really not able to beat this horrible man who is destroying our country?
If Trump thought the country didn’t need changing, why did he run on “Make America Great Again” and proceed to undo everything Obama did? Congress passes laws. Laws enact change. So these Congresswomen are just trying to do their jobs. There’s never an excuse for racist remarks. Trump’s is particularly pathetic.
4
Maybe it’s not so clear Trump’s statements were racist. But it’s telling that most professional racists think he’s a racist.
1
By his own words, Trump is the one who hates this country and should leave! He cozies up to America’s enemies - like Russia, N Korea, and white nationalists.
5
Its a no win for Dems. Trump supporters thrive on his behavior and love the reaction of dems. The more they react the better for him. He purposefully does these things.
He wants to keep the dark skinned, women, communists as his example of the dem party to his base. He wants them to think that these folks are the party. Its just starting folks.
2
Stop covering his tweets and his front lawn speaking opportunities. Only cover official press conferences. Ignore the occupant of the white house and his rantings and ravings.
2
I think these congresswomen should have ignored Trump when he first attacked them. He's behaving like a schoolyard bully shouting taunts and, with people like that, all our mothers counseled us to ignore them. Unfortunately, these female lawmakers have played into his hands and their party will suffer for it. The world needs this president out of office in 2020; too bad we can't vote.
What's embarrassing here is not so much Trump, but the rest of the world knowing so many Americans love this xenophobe with unthinking, unquestioning loyalty. And Trump knows it.
The problem here is liberals are so clueless that their denigrating of those supporters (I guess I'm somewhat guilty here as well) by calling them rubes, ignoramuses, and deplorables. And the targets of that taunting and denigration resent it. Can't say I blame them. Being snide, arrogant, and so quick to demonize conservatives, liberals who don't live up to their own credo of tolerance and acceptance of diverse voices are going to be the downfall of any progressive shift in American politics. You beat a dog, and he's eventually going to bite you. And he would be well within his rights to do so.
2
No President has ever been so delighted taking the low road.
2
Senator Graham didn't just criticize the women's policies---he called them communists and said they hated America and Israel. And he said it all with venom and anger. It didn't count, in my mind, as much of an admonition to the president.
2
I worked overseas in both S. America and S-E Asia. I now live in a country that I don't understand. Trump is hurling insults at members of Congress and the GOP is letting this slide? CNN International is broadcasting his hatred and racially offensive language to the world. He is diminishing the status of the US while the world is listening and watching.
He now tells these four Congresswomen on Twitter, “IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY HERE, YOU CAN LEAVE!”
Trump has no business telling Congressional members to 'go back' to the countries they came from. They are all US citizens. Ms Omar is a US citizen who was voted into Congress by her constituents. She is NOT an Al Qaeda sympathizer.
It is absolutely frightening to think that people support Trump when he is a racist White Supremacist who belittles people who aren't loyal to him. How low can this country sink?
2
I honestly don't know how the USA can get back on its feet with Fox News stirring up fear and ignorance all day long. Because of Fox you got Trump.
1
Just for a moment, try to put aside the racism, the misogyny, the maniacal narcissism, the utter incompetence, and remember this: the President of the United States is letting four freshman Congresswomen, whose votes count for less than one percent of the House, dictate his agenda and occupy his entire bandwidth. They are inside his head and disrupting his decision cycle, and the harm done is wholly self-inflicted.
November 3, 2020, cannot come quickly enough.
2
Maybe MSM could quit spending so much time on Tweets and playing into the hand of the Con occupying the White House and spend more time on say, the humanitarian crisis at the border or how about some personal and in depth reporting on the presidential candidates or even better some POSITIVE articles on every day people who are truly making a difference in America.
Putin’s Puppet Tweets some idiotic tweet meant to inflame and divide and the media plays right into it. And the Con is an expert at playing the media. Enough already!
Please, no more reporting on idiotic tweets that are meant to inflame. All this media attention on him is what he desires. I dare the NYT to go dry on his Tweets and quit giving him a free advertising platform to distract you from more important things (not to diminish the freshmen congresswomen-I say bravo to them).
Please media quit playing the shiny object / distraction game.
1
Many have tried to claim that not all Trump supporters are racist. That may very well be true. But all racists are Trump supporters. That is almost certainly true. In a way this can be seen as something healthy. America can't get better unless her sicknesses come out in the open and are clearly identified. Ripping off the veil of civility might do us some good though the problem will be to know when and HOW to stop evaluating and start changing. The four horsewoman of the apocalypse are that change and I for one love and support them. Let the winds of change blow.
Even more appalling than Trump is the silence from Republicans.
Even the very "Christian" VP, Mike Pence remains silent.
Do you think Pence even realizes that Adam & Eve and Jesus Christ had brown skin?
Or that every American is an immigrant or descended from immigrants?
The only exception is Americans that are 100% Native American. And their skin isn't white either.
Vote Democratic in 2020.
Every seat, every office.
Celebrate the wonderful melting pot that America is.
Vote D.
1
These latest statements by this criminal in the White House are certainly grounds for Impeachment. No question about this. Your serve, Ms. Pelosi!
We all know what "go back where you came from means". We've all either said it, been on the receiving end of it or witnessed it. There can be no backtracking on those comments, Mr. Trump. To say all you meant was "they can leave now if they want" is ridiculous. By now we all know you have no filters and when you tweet trash, you're saying exactly what you mean. When you speak about positive ideals like unity, we all know someone else wrote that speech for you and you didn't bother to read it ahead of time so it sounds rather absurd coming out of your mouth. Where is the montage of all the derogatory things YOU have said about this country over the last few years? Circulating soon on the WWW.
I’m sorry, but no matter how hard you push, you will never make blue-collar “whites”, battered by 40 years of globalization and having been sufficiently “trickled down” on, to ‘get’ that the rewards, are never going to go to them- you will never make them accept that they are in possession of “privilege”.
I would drop it.
2
Good for them! That's where their anger belongs-aimed @ trump.
The U.S. is rapidly becoming a vile country led by racists and apologists for racists. Other countries look on with horror as your joke president daily tramples on democracy and decency and at the same time embraces and encourages the climate disaster for purely short term economic gain. I know that many, many decent Americans despise all Trump stands for but until all Republicans abandon short term political gain and stop propping up this fool of a President then nobody can be sure where this will end. And that's scary.
1
Trump highlighted the fact that the Speaker and the Squad are at loggerheads. How does that help the Republican effort to conflate the Squad's policies with those of the Democratic party?
1
Last night I finished watching the latest season of Stranger Things and now realize that the villain “Mind Flayer” is none other than the President.
There was an article by Adam Serwer in The Atlantic last fall entitled:
The Cruelty Is the Point:
President Trump and his supporters find community by rejoicing in the suffering of those they hate and fear.
It deftly explained Trump's point of view about anyone who wasn't rich and white.
Reminds me of the old "America Love It or Leave It" junk from the 1970s. Voicing concerns is not cause to "leave it." Politics in its worst sense!
So since I agree with the congresswomen and since I was adopted and don’t know exactly where I came from ( I’m pretty white) where should I look to go back to? I’ve been around the world a few times thanks to the USN and if I could I think I’d like to go to New Zealand can mr trumpster make travel arrangements and pay for them for me and my wife?
djt has confused criticism of his behaviour with hatred of the country. Those who are "not happy" (his words) are unhappy with him and his policies. And it is not unreasonable or treasonous to express opposition to him.
This has been the longest 4 years of my life.
Remember there are apparently 35-40% of voters who seem ok with this disgusting behavior. I remember the virulent hate of Tea partiers at people who needed ACA. Many Corporate heads (Amazon, google?) who see only financial edge are ok with it. George Wallace and Pat Buchanan years ago revealed this large minority was out there. Here we are with 2 senators from Wyoming vs 2 from California, not 1 person 1 vote democracy. Add Republican Voter suppression and I'd say the pitch fork crowd is solidly in control!
Wow. What happened to the good old days, like when President Obama wore the tan suit, and the GOP imploded and exploded with rage. Sigh
Where is the Senate leadership, particularly that syncophant Mitch McConnell, not condemning these racist diatribes from this totally unfit president? The Senate leadership’s silence tells the people of this country that they, too, are complicit and that outright racism is not only acceptable, but required in order to ensure reelection. While I am not generally a fan of Nancy Pelosi, in this instance (as well as other standoffs with Trump), she has shown that she can herd her group of fractious legislative cats without sacrificing the core principles this country stands for. Shame on your Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham!
Too much False Equivalence, not enough condemnation in this reporting. Call the indecency for what it is, and then report on who is willing to call the spade a spade. On this, any equivocation is unacceptable.
When in Viet Nam we we would beach up or anchor down in the rivers. To counter the possibility of enemy swimmers planting mines or explosives on our boats and ships we would toss percussion grenades throughout the night. When a percussion grenade is is tossed in, especially, shallow waters all kinds of garbage and trash would surface to the top.
Trump is our percussion grenade, once tossed in our Democratic waters in 2016 all kinds of ugly and foul smelling stuff has risen to the surface. This foul debris had been below the surface for many, many years but it took the likes of Trump to bring it to the surface. Now What?
1
I can’t agree with Mr. Beltcher more! Mr. Trump has surrounded himself with quicksand, and the Democrats seem unable to recognize this as they push forward.
It’s a shame that the Democrats can unite only when they’re pelting an already acknowledged racist, white supremacist egotist. Instead of abetting the Republicans (who are smart enough to stay united), they should agree to all shoot for the same target: get rid of Mr. Trump! Wide-ranging discourse and dispute are essential for progress, but during an election campaign, they should be muted. We know by now the issues that most of the electorate want to hear debated, and getting side-tracked by a universally recognized narcissist is not going to do the job.
I hope the Dems can come up with a candidate that doesn't engage in twitter and feeble comments, but more importantly I hope the Dems come up, together with the DNC, some policies that are not based on identity politics, victim-hood, attacking 'whites' as evil (reparations?!), freebies for all, and open borders. Because that rhetoric will not move the country forward and may very well loose the Dems the election. Trump says stupid things daily, likes to get a rise. But the majority want a moderate leader that will avoid the extremes that we here in today's media. The majority abhor violent protests and attacks on citizens based on their political leanings. All I hear from the Dems that have the mic are opposite to civility; as if they have turned into Trump for the other side of the pendulum.
1
Don't we fire people who speak like this in the workplace?
No doubt that the Trump strategy, if you can call it that, for the election has become more manifest in his hideous remarks telling people he disagrees with to leave the country. That said, after all of the disgusting behavior he has manifested, now he has crossed a line? Where was the outrage when he readily admitted to sexual predation? When he attacked in policy and words people of color? When he demeaned the office with his unhinged lack of impulse control? When he has consistently dismantled the mechanics of good government? Now, this is a step too far?
On the whole it is a positive moment for trump in that he has not yet dispatched ICE to "deport" the SQUAD. SUCH IRRATIONALITY would be in character for this reality tv show of a White House.
Didn't the four "squad" women also accuse Rep. Pelosi of racism, when she indicated that they do not set the Democratic party's policy?
1
once again, trumps ranting applies to him more than the people he is addressing.
While I am convinced that Donald Trump truly does not believe that he is a racist, I can think of no better example of racist behavior than his recent comments. As others have pointed out, telling a person of color to go back to the country from which they came is classic, textbook racism, and it honestly astounds me that someone could make it to his eighth decade of life without understanding that.
I think the label "socialist" that some Democratic presidential contenders have allowed themselves to be branded with needs to be clarified. As far as I have seen, not one Democratic politician endorses the idea of America becoming a socialist country. Even Bernie Sanders has tried to communicate that what he (and many of us ) support is not a socialist state but an end to policies that support reverse socialism. One example of reverse socialism is man made climate change; oil and coal companies get to make profits and even get substantial subsidies (from our tax dollars) but the costs, which include floods, fires and more powerful storms get paid by FEMA. FEMA is funded by our tax dollars. Does it not make perfect sense then to in some manner require polluting companies to bear the cost of cleaning up their mess? Is that "socialism"? Perhaps all of us who love our country should stop throwing around inflammatory labels and start demanding policies that consider first and foremost what our country will look like when our grandchildren inherit it. I would very much like to "go back to where I came from", it was a time in America when the Clean water laws were passed and the EPA was established.
3
If this is the battlefield on which the 2020 election is fought, then it is a battle for the soul of the Republican party. God help us all.
Are we the shining city on the hill, or an insular society dedicated to keeping bloodlines pure? Both are an exaggeration, both pander to the idea of American exceptionalism. Nothing grand about the old party these days.
4
I wonder if all the mothers that voted for Trump point to him as an example of the type of person they would want their children to be.
The sad thing is, that they probably do.
6
Twitter is not the medium for any Congressman/women to use for government business. It does not promote intelligent dialogue. Responding to Trump on Twitter demeans the government official doing so. Using Twitter to further one's agenda does so as well. If government officials have something they want to say to the public , speak to the public on a news media that will carry the interview. Twitter reminds me of the notes we used to send one another in elementary school, sometimes rumors and sometimes vicious barbs sent back and forth.
I say this to the new House members too. Discuss your viewpoints with the members of your party before shooting from the hip. You still have a lot to learn.
1
"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."
Of course he does. Bullies love a good fight. Bullies want their opponents to hit back so they can escalate their attack.
The Democrats are playing into his hand and if they keep it up he'll keep them completely off balance through the duration of the 2020 race, and chase them into defeat.
The best response is to completely ignore him.
4
I am so proud of these congresswomen for responding. These responses need to be heard and appreciated, particularly in the wake of Trump's heinous remarks and dangerous policies. Political pundits and journalists can ponder whether it would have been better to "stay silent" or avoid being entangled with Trump. This occupant of the white house needs to be held accountable for words, actions and policies otherwise we the people can contribute to the denigration of this most honorable position by perpetuating silence as the GOP has impotently demonstrated.
1
My expectation is that things are going to get much worse and very tense about 6 months ahead of the 2020 elections. People in the streets will enable his plans.
Over the coming 12 months Trump is going to be increasingly vocal, more significantly rhetorically challenging and more willing to aggressively attack the values that bind us together as Americans. And that's what will lead the people to the streets.
One can't help but correctly guess what Trump will do...
2
Whereas President Donald Trump’s racist comments have legitimized fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
(1) 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;
(2) 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; and
(3) strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s racist comments that have 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.
2
The more things change the more they remain the same. I remember the “love it or leave it” slogan that the right wing used to attack the anti war movement in the sixties. Now, as then, the movement was full of young people, women, and minorities, who passionately wanted to check the mindless hatred of the establishment of both parties. They were called communists then and are called terrorists now but both labels identify the same thing: the progressive sanity that must be smeared in the media to prevent it from gaining a natural foothold and propelling constructive change.
But such movements would not be attacked if they did not have power. In the sixties the movement went to the streets and used the power of television to reach the public. Today the movement goes to social media and reaches even more people. The natural progressive movement that always arises in times of national crisis is the most potent anti Trump and anti hate force in the country. In the sixties this movement removed presidents from office and ended the longest war in US history. Today this movement is just getting started but Trump must hear footsteps. He is right to attack them because they are his worst enemy, but his attacks will only make them stronger and bring their ideas into the mainstream. This is the oldest American story of popular uprising and political rebirth and it does not bode well for those who stand in the way.
1
Trump is playing the news media like a finely-tuned fiddle. There are many substantive issues that the news media should be discussing: Human rights in China, US infrastructure, US national debt, opioid epidemic, public education, etc. Instead, they seize on Trump's regularly outrageous comments -- as if they are something new -- and vie with one another for the most righteously indignant summary and the morally highest riposte.
What shall it be next week? Relevant news about world and national affairs, or more twenty-four-hour moral outrage directed at the latest Trump utterance.
Time to grow up NYTimes.
4
He's been doing this since Rosie O'Donnell.
After he gets bored with one target, he moves on to the next.
Eventually someone is going to be harmed, and maybe then Twitter will shut down his account as it should have a long time ago.
2
It would be nice if AOC did not accuse the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi in singling out four women of color. But she did and that gave Trump an opening for the attack. AOC should find the way out and take her comment on Nancy Pelosi back, apologize and never do it again.
6
The "go back where you came from" insult is overused and boring. Logically, we must all go back to where we came from, except perhaps Native Americans. I wonder how England and Germany and other European countries would feel if a bunch of Euro-Americans started to land at their doorsteps? I like how the four congress women responded. Best among them was Congresswoman Pressley who referred to Donald Trump as "the occupant of the White House." I wish AOC would have done the same as opposed to repeating the word president, which he certainly doesn't deserve in more ways than one. Language matters; it influences attitudes and opinions. Let's strip this man from the title and refer to him by his given name.
1
Two things come to mind. I believe it's about time Mr. Trump had his Twitter account suspended. Under Twitter rules: "Abuse/harassment: You may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone."
Re: Hateful Conduct: "You may not...harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin." The rule is longer, prohibiting several other types of provocative tweets. ( see https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-rules )
Second, let's have a day for American Decency, where Americans come out and just stand up against this lowest-rung rhetoric that we don't stand for as a country and as human beings. It's not about party, or politics, it's about values, the values we teach our children. It's as John Kasich said, about our nation's soul. If our leaders won't stand up and say that's enough, we citizens should do it.
3
It cannot be stated enough that Republican members of Congress are, if not explicitly supportive of Trump's vile attacks, at least complicit in enabling them. If enough of them banded together to jointly denounce the president, it might temper his behavior. Instead they keep their heads down, look the other way, and hope no one notices them. They are as morally bankrupt as Trump. There is NO excuse for allowing this unhinged president to get away with his constant bullying.
It's unfortunate the Democratic party is divided, although there's nothing like a common enemy to bring people together. But make no mistake: The Republican party is responsible for Trump, for being unwilling or unable to rein him on. The swirling of democracy going down the drain is on them.
2
The Squad have many more fans now. They are hero’s.
2
While we need to continue talking about racism in this country this is not the conversation we need to be having. This is devolving into a PR brawl more suited for the tabloids than the Times. Nothing is going to be resolved by any of this.
The so called "Squad" are making a bunch of rookie mistakes. They are playing right into Trump's hand. When your opponent is holding a gun don't hand him the bullets.
Our focus should be on flipping the White House and the Senate right now, not some intramural dust up in the House. We all know Trump isn't going to let this go so it is up to the four congresswomen to be the adults here. Just consider the source and let it go. There are protocols for dealing with this kind of thing.
1
A calculated manipulation of anger forms the essential [and, of course, demented] logic of Trump's strategy for re-winning the presidency in 2020.
This is how the demented logic works:
A.
Continue to stoke the primary causes of anger in his base -- feelings of economic disenfranchisement, distrust of federal government, etc. -- that got him to the White House
B.
To that crucible (i.e., to the base numbers of Trump supporters), add voters who are angry at progressives ("socialists"); ambitious women; mindful blacks and LGBTQs; distressed migrants; those who are educated, enlightened, visionary,...
C.
Continuously mine new stereotypes and exploit them to attract those who share in Trump's disparagements and dismissals.
Stir well. Pepper with bile. Repeat.
2
Cornell Belcher, the Democratic pollster and strategist usually gets it right. He thinks that Trump is crazy like a fox and that Democrats have to be very careful not to allow Trump to lead them on to the battlefield that he wants to fight on and that he has won on in the past.
1
Trump started his campaign for the presidency using racial, religious and cultural ethnicity difference rhetoric.
He purposely flamed the fires already existing in the country.
That's all he knows and sadly it works.
It works even after his own presidency has been lacking, for lack of a better word.
And his selling points have not changed.
It points to the fact that there is more ignorance in this country than one can imagine.
Trump, himself is representative of that ignorance.
But then again, Trump did say he loves his undereducated,
didn't he.
People that lack the ability to think critically are easily manipulated.
As a con man himself who has managed to get over by manipulating the people with whom he has done business with. it boggles the mind that he is still in business what's more president of the US.
1
And to think that Trump's lawyers (lawyers: so-called upholders of the law and decency) are daily counseling, and supporting, their client in his verbal lacerations.
1
The Honorable members of Congress with who Trump is bickering, are not wise and deep thinkers but young, passionate, and certain about things which seem simple and easy to understand to them. They are determined to throw bombs to achieve their ends because they know no better. They are easy targets for Trump’s own bomb throwing habits. In the end, it’s more wasted efforts that distracts.
So the news cycle interest in Epstein and his relationship with Trump has so easily been changed and forgotten by the old stand by, racism.
11
The comments by the President were vile and clearly racist. They also seem to have produced the desired result of changing the subject. We are not talking about a very bad week for Trump which includes the arrest of his former good friend and convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, his humiliating retreat on the Census citizenship questions, and the much anticipated testimony of Robert Mueller.
9
These 4 clueless amateurs walk right into the trap where Trump will set them on fire on the open border issue -a maddening and unpopular issue, to ensure his reelection over even crazier and divisive Democrats.
5
The problem is no longer Trump. It's the Republican party. I have been an independent voter for 20 years. I will never - never - vote for another Republican. Absolutely not. None of them will stand up to the president. It's a new, unique and profoundly low level of disgraceful - really in unchartered territory. They are all cowards. Their moral compasses are being pulled toward a new force, Trump, that is mired in ugliness, hatred, division, and rank immorality. Obviously, not today and maybe not next week or next month - but soon enough the Republicans will have to answer for their cowardly supplication to this conman. And they will trip over themselves as they dissemble. Appalling that these people call themselves Americans.
11
If Trump's comments aren't racist, what is? They are. And everyone of us needs to decide where we stand.
4
Trump and many republicans need to read the poem at the base of the statue of Liberty by Emma Lazarus.
5
Trump is just Quality Assuring the tripwires in the US Constitution and clarifying President powers. He might have been sent by God Almighty to awaken the citizen sleepiness in self-determination and representative democracy. That test is almost over and the data are heartbreaking as upwards of 30% of the citizenry come from whitetrashville and prefer authoritarian, dog eat dog rule. Traditional Christianity is regrettably complicit and is fueling Trump madness and thirst for extraordinary power. America is rapping on a doomsday door and looks more and more inclined toward racism and fascism in giant segments of USA society. God is just Quality checking his creation in anticipation of the tripwires in Revelations.
3
He tripped the wires very early with his collusion, obstruction and travel ban. What we learned is that the people who are to fix the QA (congress and courts) were toothless and didn’t care. So the travesty continues.
George and KellyAnn Conway's daughters are of mixed race. Yet, their mother continues to work for an outspoken and unapologetic racist. I'm sure her superb federal health plan will cover the extensive therapy these girls will need.
5
I’m reading these comments and some say, “Trump doesn’t care anymore” or “I don’t have any respect for him anymore” and I’m astounded that they ever thought he cared or had any respect for him. He has never cared about anyone but himself, ever. Everything he has ever said and done his entire life has been to get attention and feed his ego.
I’m also astounded when I hear people call him smart. He is a thug plain and simple. That does not take intelligence of any kind. He is ruled by his emotions and ego. He has never in the past cared and will never care about anything or anyone but himself. He has proven this repeatedly throughout his 70 years.
That is why he, his enablers in Congress, and his base are so dangerous for the entire planet and all its inhabitants. We mean nothing to him and he acts accordingly.
6
Perhaps the "occupant of the White House" should consider leaving America for a country that operates on Racism, Xenophobic, Misogyny and criminal activity and take the White Supremacists with him.
Furthermore it would be great if the Democratic contenders start referring to Trump as the "occupant in the White House"
The press might want to call him that too. After all, that is just what he is.
3
Trump is merely a truth speaker, and as we all know the Democrats can’t handle the truth.
3
This artfully crafted melodrama is worthy of World Wrestling Entertainment, of which the president was formerly associated. All the shouting. All the hyperbolic, in-your-face insults. Black and white -- literally -- antagonists. Someone should do a study as to whether the Great White Hope's red hat followers are also WWE fans. I bet many if not most of them are. If you're a fan, who cares if it's all phony. It's the ENTERTAINMENT that counts and the ability to express all that suppressed rage that you've been kindling all your life.
2
Tweeting is not a brawl, and I think we would all be better off not gratifying the male ego by acknowledging that an 80-year old white man typing petty nonsense is certainly not virile, spry, or even ever been physically hit ever.
1
I believe that Trump is not a “true” racist.
Having worked in psychiatry for over 30 years, I believe that he has a mental illness; specifically a severe personality disorder: narcissism.
This drives him to say and do whatever he believes will benefit himself at any particular place, time, situation.
He relishes the competition and will say and do whatever he thinks will gain him the advantage. He is driven to win.
And with the addition of his money and influence he has been able to unleash chaos.
1
So the playground fight has been elevated to the highest level of government, and we are supposed to take comfort in the fact that the bully's targets did not back down. Certainly that is better than giving him unfettered license to attack, but shouldn't our goal be to raise the level of discourse rather than get down in the sewer with the Bully-in-Chief?
1
You have an imposter if the office of the president who ran on the campaign of “make America great again,” a campaign, which in itself, suggests that America had somehow slipped from greatness— and this imposter is then telling people who are critical of him and his policies to leave if they don’t like it. Too bad those who voted for this imposter who didn’t think America was great didn’t follow this advice from their leader.
1
"Mr. 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..." Because he feeds off of attention, all forms of media, including the NYT, should quit covering this President all together. No one show up for press conferences, shut him out, don't reprint or rebroadcast his hateful rhetoric. Pretend he doesn't exist.
5
Republicans. Gotta scratch your head here. Always so quick with the moral judgment they are, but now? They are pretty mute. It’s the party of trump. It’s disgusting. If the dems could get their focus, I would say we will get back to real morality after next year’s election. But I’m an old woman, and this doesn’t look like something the country will get right, maybe even until after it’s too late.
1
Obama -
..another person of color whose original country has come into question by Trump...
....should go on the road campaigning with these women for the Dem nominee in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvaniaand Florida etc.
Middle and working class America - here are your champions!
1
Trump loves this stuff , that’s why most Americans just shrug it off, most people don’t even read newspapers anymore .
Maybe , a few million combined watch CNN, Fox, MSNBC, small ,very small segments of the population.
1
Another of Caligula's shiny objects for the media.
It's another of Caligula's distractions from the children in cages at the Southern Border. The inhuman treatment and crimes against humanity on a grand scale. It also distracts form the possible failure of the first day of ICE raids, and the outrageous colateral victimization that's bound to happen, which may even include Latinos who are American citizens.
Thus Caligula controls the media... he's done it for so long, but the media is powerless to change it even though many understand what's happening. The intense public interest and media profit motives are predictable and Caligula uses them to virtually FORCE the media to look at whatever shiny object he wants.
3
When this disgraced wreck of a human being is voted out hit him with all the investigations and get all the tax and other information he is hiding. Prison is probably out as he will get a sick note off his doctors (Vietnam) but hit him with back taxes and huge fines, as well as seizing all the illegal money his businesses have made whilst in office and see what he is really worth, take it all off him. He is a disgrace to your great country.
3
Trump’s racist attack was a deliberate attempt to reclaim the headlines from Epstein. Please don’t let him.
4
Don’t take the bait, New York Times and readership! - this isn’t about race. Most of us are decent Americans who believe in Dr. Martin Luther King’s words eternal: “Judge not a book by its cover, but of the content of its character.” Trump is trying to divide us along racial lines. He is desperate.
2
If you aren’t willing to put yourself in Trump’s statements, but always the other guy has to leave if they don’t agree, you’re a racist. You may not realize it, but you are. It’s very hard to impeach a President that holds a majority view, and Trump and his followers think they do. Yes, he should be impeached for what he just said, and he should be kicked out of office. Very un-American. Unfortunately, his base doesn’t think so. Best solution, vote them ALL out by a wide margin. Prove to the world that Trump does not define us, does not represent the majority. Luckily, Trump is making it very easy to identify his basic and very un-American tenants. They need to be labeled strongly and consistently as such. We are a nation of immigrants. We are a nation of laws. We need a President who believes this.
The Electoral College has consistently been used by racists to elect Presidents who do not hold American values, but are war-mongering capitalists of the worst sort. It as created to allow slave-holding states to joint the union and maintain white majorities although their populations were overwhelmingly slaves of color. It is wrong and needs to be abolished.
Mueller hearing’s format has been expanded just as Epstein’s indictment threatens to implicate him.
No wonder Trump is acting irrational.
The former UK ambassador could not have said it better: this man’s life will end in disgrace.
2
Trump manipulates the media frenzy. All forms of media benefit from this man being in power. So what, he said they should go back where they came from. People said that to me and I'm 2nd generation Italian American. I could take it at the age of 7 and I'm sure these powerful competent women can take it as well.
Anyone who loses their mind and becomes emotionally distraught over the ramblings of a narcissistic child who likely also has dementia, should not be in power either. Trump whistles and the media and his rabid haters respond on cue. Racism has been around for a long time and will be with us for a longer time still. Fear-mongering about immigrants is the oldest political game in US politics, it literally goes back to the era of the founding fathers.
I look at the crisis of the day as the latest reality tv episode. Really, what will people foam at the mouth about Trump doing tomorrow? How is it different from yesterday?
1
Hey, I am not happy and I'd like to tell Trump that He is the one that has to GO!
The continued use by the NYT of hedged language like "comments condemned as racist" is infuriating, cowardly, and dangerous. It's sending readers the gaslighting message that "Maybe Trump's comments weren't actually racist. Certainly WE'RE not saying that, it's just that some minority government representatives are claiming such".
Please stop this immediately. It's really dispiriting and gross, and plays right into the hands of those who are waging war on both truth and basic human decency. Do not be a part to it. Take a principled stand.
1
The statement that no president in modern times has appealed so openly to racists has me wondering if ANY American president appealed openly to racists other than Andrew Johnson, who did if memory serves me correctly. Other presidents, including Lincoln himself, could be called racists, but no one of them has been so reckless or so stupid as to be an open advocate of hatred of black or brown people, to openly appeal to white supremacists as a means of garnering votes. Am I wrong? Is there something I do not know?
Just when I thought Trump could go no lower, Trump stoops to blatant racist comments. Lets stop apologising for the racist behaviour of Trump and his supporters.. Hillary was right most of Trump supporters are deplorable. Anyone who supports Trump is no friend of mine.
Its time the democrats grow a spine and start impeachment proceedings. I admire AOC for standing up for what she believes in. The 2020 election is for the soul of America.
The NYT is spending far to much time restating, reiterating, and re-emphasizing Trump's words and far too little time reporting the words of the four women he has chosen to objectify his race hatred.
These women have eloquently and clearly uplifted this conversation, yet, as usual, the bully takes over the stage.
2
“This is simply a disruption and a distraction from the callous, chaotic, and corrupt culture of this administration,” said Ms. Pressley, who made a point of not referring to the president by name, instead calling him “the occupant of the White House.”
I have never called this vile man by the title President. I never will. He is not Presidential in any way and he is not and will never be my President. He is simply an unfortunate occupant of the White House. One that embarrasses this nation every single day.
1
Once again, Trump is the anti-American democracy hater who does not belong in America. His behavior, rhetoric, and messaging has no legitimate place in America. Shame on his enablers and those who remain silent. His next step is to deport US citizens who don't agree with his dogma. We are in extremely dangerous territory, and it's up to the left and the moderates on the right to end this cancer for good.
So the house will stop working on meaningful legislation to say, Bad president ! Bad !
Nancy Pelosi's answer to the executive crime wave. A time out.
Ha! Ha! Ha! "Lordy," as James Comey would say; you can't make this stuff up. If it's a choice between Pres. Trump or a socialist apocalypse, 69% of the voting public will re-elect Pres. Trump.
It's quiet interesting how Mr Trump manages to distract from real issues that exposes his incompetency to be in the place he found himself in now. For someone who has shown gross negligence and complete disregard for the rule of law whereas children are been caged and molestation accusation are been investigated. Who expects anything less from Mr trump in this regards. since one of his buddy is now for the second time indicted for molesting under age girls. His statement is a clear sign of his discomfort in the truth about his lack of leadership. Off course no one expected him or his administration to be ferociously incompetent but its quiet obvious. So when the house reps actually reported on facts and testified to congress about their finding at the locations and risk children are exposed to as we speak, His lack of solution was to respond with attack as a twisted bigot which off course has been glaring. Journalist should stay the course, report on facts and impact of reckless policy on one hand towards the kids, at the same time report on this Epstein case to remind people that their wealth or position in power will not shield them from sexual criminal acts towards underage kids. Stay the course.
1
Remember, it was merely 2 years ago that Sen Elizabeth Warren "persisted," and got silenced by a bunch of stodgy white male Republicans. Her persistence morphed into a meme, bumper stickers, t-shirts, etc. And she might well persist into become our next President or VP.
I hold similar hope for the women of The Squad. I'm disappointed that so many self-proclaimed "moderate" or even "Democrat" commenters here are telling them to sit down and "behave nicely." Yup, the old trope that an outspoken woman, person of color, gay man, Jew, et al must appear meek and subordinate. Wrong!
These women are speaking truth to power. They have every right to be brash, even abrasive. It doesn't matter that I don't agree with everything they say or believe in; I'm just glad to see people on the Left finally dishing back at Trump (who has destroyed any semblence of civility in our discourse, and thus doesn't deserve any to him).
Who cares if the uppity women of color (sorry, Justice Thomas) "scare" some people who are putatively "in the middle." C'mon, we're never getting their votes anyway; let them be scared.
Let these women keep whipping Trump into a frenzy. At some point, he will unravel or explode so far that even the silently complicit Republican will be stained by him.
Sometimes you have to pop a zit or lance a boil to let out the festering infection. Let The Squad wield the lance, rather than ceding that power toTrump.
You go, Girls!
1
If he were an employee at friendlys or teacher at a school. He’d already be fired. The president is not above the law
2
@Mary M -- I love your use of Friendly's ice cream to analogize the rules of employment that should apply to Trump, as they do to the rest of us. The word's application here is classic, given, of course, that there's absolutely nothing friendly about Trump.
1
The effect of electing a reality TV "star", right here. When the headline of a story about the president is about slinging insults, I wonder if we can ever crawl out of this dark, slimy hole. Good lord. He IS a genius. Maybe not a stable one, but he has left congresspeople and journalists no choice but to be caught up in this lowest common denominator culture that he creates and sustains with relish. Help.
The President seized an opportunity to brand the entire Democratic Party as extremist, even though “the squad” has very little influence on policy.
Very clever. He will continue this tactic as long as he has willing partners, and that is exactly what these Congresswomen are. Pelosi must be going nuts. We all know these women are not representative of the Party, but Trump will continue to paint the Party with this broad brush and that means trouble for the power grab in 2020.
Racist? Hardly, he told them “please come back”.
Triggered? Absolutely. That was easy. And ironically these four outwardly Anti-Semites who demonstrate disdain for America are the perfect props. What’s Talib’s approval at? 9%?
A search feature would be very helpful, given the 2.6k comments for this piece so far.
I trust the good people of the USA to remove this chap at your next presidential election. I especially trust the decent side (of which there are many) of the Republican Party to do the right thing. This type of racism is the foundation essential to the legitimisation of facism and white supremacist views. Just in case us Patriots are at all unclear, this is what we fought together to remove in World War 2. Whilst Trump is not yet openly facist, he has taken a step too far here. Of course from a UK perspective it seems really weird, as the logical and legal terminus of his opinions is for all folks of European origins to go home and leave the native Americans to have their country back. Make America sustainable again. Good luck with your next elections and choose a mid left democrat for goodness sake to sweep this vile odour far away from power. Much love and respect, Robert.
Maybe the American people have had enough of Donald Trump and his tweets. I also think these four anti-semitic Congresswomen should not be the face of the Democratic party.
Don’t play his game!
If 45 went back to where he came from, Queens, wouldn't he be in AOC territory?
Where will it end? And when?
1
Considering how few generations Teump is away from a small town in Germany, He's the one who should return. He doesn't have any idea how many centuries ago slave ships run by Europeans started dragging Africans on slave ships to North America. Nor does he fathom how many millennia the ancestors of native Americans arrived here. All I can say is: Trump go home...you are an immigrant too like every person of purely European descent is too. Or get wise and accept every one independent of race, creed or color whose ancestors very probably got here before yours did.
1
Haven’t heard anything about the Mueller report, or congressional investigations, or Russia, or small hands in the cookie jar lately, have you? He may not be very bright, but he’s good at what he does!
1
Trump beats up people on Twitter; period. He fires people on Twitter, he berates people on Twitter, his weapon of choice is Twitter. This is the best place to weaken him. Forget the content, amplify the weakness. For example; if AOC is the target of his daily rants, she should always, always dismiss them as weak. "If a man or woman will not say these words to my face, he or she is a coward." Twitter shields the President from speaking directly to his targets; therefore the President is a coward. Every Trump voter knows this is true. De-weaponize his Twitter pronouncements; no matter how vicious and small. Predict his next ones, before he does. Focus on the weakness of his platform, not his words. He will wither away; finding Instagram or some other nonsense for hating America. Are Democrats finally ready to battle the platform, or keep reacting to the hate in ways that feed the beast; we are losing with continual reaction. This is not brain surgery; but Democrats naivete at predicting and strategically ending the behavior of this President is mind-numbing.
6
I have to say, this calculated move by trump is extraordinarily well timed. HIs nasty comments came on the heels of AOC accusing Nancy Pelosi of targeting "the squad" because of their racial composition. Now, he dishes up his own brand of bile and their response mirrors what they said of Pelosi. Here's the lesson for the gang of 4, use the race card with care.
2
An old man vs. three strong young women. He picked the wrong fight.
He's losing his game. He usually isolates one at a time - here he's attacking 4. And Pelosi isn't in his corner, not by a long shot. And his R sycophants are mostly cowering. If they support the minority base while inflaming the majority by coming out to support this racist attack, they will lose their next election.
I guess he had to do it, because there's either this or nuclear war to distract from the Epstein debacle (and he might get hurt in a nuclear exchange), but he's finally gone too far.
3
Interesting comments from Lindsay Graham. On one hand, he wants to debate policy, on the other hand if you disagree with him then you hate America and are a communist.
In his defense, he is terrified that Trump will primary him. Hence the backflips. Undoubtedly, Trumps comments are wildly popular among most South Carolina whites so there is no way that he will defy the stable genius.
1
Just because 51% of the people you voted for you does not mean you represent the 49%
Those same Americans who voted for Obama Voted for Trump. Besides Nancy protecting the 4 extremely liberal congress people couldn't have worked out better for Trump. Plus the racist "Keep America White Again" was political gold for Trump. The more those 4 extreme liberals are in the news the better for Trump. Unfortunately for the news people rather hear about a Twitter fight between Trump the Squad and Nancy over the boring Muller interview.
1
From a political strategy viewpoint my concern is that trump is trying to position the squad as the face of the democratic party. He knows their agenda is quite far left and off-putting to large swaths of america (namely non-confrontational whites who are uncomfortable with race conversations and do not think race is a political debate issue). This means come 2020 democratic candidates will have to
1. either distance themselves or worse vocally criticize the squad thereby alienating their own progressive democratic voters
2. support the squad and get painted with the same progressive brush thereby alienating whites who see the candidate as too far-left.
Ina nutshell he is weaponizing "the squad" even though they are not running in the election. He is making them a presidential election issue. Dems are perhaps doing that themselves with Mitch McConell but they are getting nowhere close to the same amount of traction and media air time.
1
Be afraid, be very afraid. Trump is just playing to his base? Don't believe it. He and those who enable him are leading the country into a true annus horribilis in 2020. They are aiming (consciously or not) for nothing less than a presidential election year in which the temperature of public life will have been turned up so high by Trump's extremist, hate-filled rhetoric that violence between those who are fanatically devoted to him and those in whom he inspires murderous rage will be inevitable. The result of the civic chaos will be what such chaos has always produced: the elevation of a strongman who will restore order. "Only me," he will say, again.
5
What a difference a decade makes.
It was just ten years ago that the election of Barack Obama was widely heralded as a watershed moment in American race relations. The hope of Obama's election has been replaced by utter despair in comparatively short order.
Can that hope be renewed in similarly quick fashion? I don't know. Trump's behaviour has a Pandora's Box kind of feel
to it. More importantly, true change will not occur until the deep, structural and institutionalized racism inherent in American society is addressed forthrightly, Obama or no Obama.
3
What is really interesting, and frightening, is the message by Trump which dovetails with that of Hannity. It’s like watching a fake wrestling match of a tag-team working the audience. Apparently they not only speak each night but they also appear to be colluding on a daily dose of poison flung at the American people each day and night.
This is the sickness of this reality television show at the White House.
5
Trump's comments were reprehensible, as were Congresswoman Omar's when she said 'something happened' on 9/11. Only partisans can see the hatred on only the other side. Congress should censure both in a joint resolution.
3
"President 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 Muslim women elected to Congress sympathized with Al Qaeda."
How many prominent Republicans called Trump's comments racist? The ones I saw all day yesterday on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox called the comments unfortunate at worst; some explicitly stated they were not racist.
Lindsay Graham even called the Squad communists! Shades of McCarthyism! It's as if he decided, after realizing his only hope of staying in office was to embrace Trump, he might as well go all in and become a froth-at-the-mouth Trumpette, especially after his virtual conscience John McCain died.
I really don't want to hear any Republicans who won't condemn Trump, now, talking about Ilhan Omar anti-Semitic tropes. "Benjamins" talk is nuanced compared to "go back where they came from": maybe one of the top three bigotry tropes of all time. The hypocrisy is astounding...or would be, if it hadn't been a constant drumbeat since Trump was elected.
Trump is not the main problem, folks. The complicity of the Republican party and millions of Americans, actively and passively, is the problem. Democracy often spawns by revolution, but it rarely dies by it. Most often it dies by corruption, when a critical mass of citizens give up on its ideals. Self above all else. E pluribus multis.
3
I hope we do not fall into Trump's trap by embracing uncritically the notion that he is appealing to "white nationalism." He is alienating far more white people with his racist rants than he is attracting. I am white, and he does not speak for me, nor does he speak for the majority of white people. I think at least part of his strategy is to turn large segments of the public, especially Democrats, against white people so he can use that as a campaign strategy. We should not allow him to inflame people against each other based on false tropes. Let's not play into his hands by demonizing white people as "white nationalists." The evidence shows that this appellation applies to a very small segment of the population.
4
Disapproving, not liking, even hating Donald Trump does not mean someone hates our country. Quite the opposite is true. But yes, again, this POTUS caustically believes he IS the US. The GOP are simply his minions.
5
"Mr. Trump appeared to revel in the viciousness of his brawl with the four progressive women"
Its not difficult to understand why.
Trump's base not only gives him permission to behave in ways that would be impossible for any other political leader to behave, Trump's base actually encourages this vicious behavior by their leader.
What is inexplicable to me is that Republican in the House and Senate are quite happy to go along and REFUSE to jettison Trump.
Democrat's on the other hand, are quite happy to bicker and fight amongst themselves and hand the 2020 to Trump, just as the Bernie Bros would rather support Trump than Hillary in 2016.
It seems to me as an outsider observer, that America is on very, very shaky ground. 2020 could roll around and the most despicable & inept President in American History could win re-election in 2020.
My question is: has this occurred to American's? Do American's understand the consequences of Trump's reelection?
2
This is all political theater. An excercise that inflames the partisans on each side and not coincidentally serves the interests of the players. It is quite sad that the game has gotten so nasty and uncivil but alas that seems to be a symptom of our click bait times. This is good for a Trump, the Fab Four and the media but unfortunately just further corrodes the tenuous binds that hold us together.
1
republicans who are silent about trump's tweets are modeling the best way the rest of us can deal with this aberration in the white house: ignore him and go about your business.
toward that end, i'd encourage those of us who cannot abide his - and their - behavior to stop posting comments in echo chambers like this one and make our business that of ensuring his and their total defeat in 2020.
2
To fully characterize Trump's Monday verbal lashing of Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna S. Pressley, along with the word racist must be added misogynist.
2
From a political strategy viewpoint my concern is that trump is trying to position the squad as the face of the democratic party. He knows their agenda is quite far left and off-putting to large swaths of america (namely non-confrontational whites who are uncomfortable with race conversations and do not think race is a political debate issue). This means come 2020 democratic candidates will have to
1. either distance themselves or worse vocally criticize the squad thereby alienating their own progressive democratic voters
2. support the squad and get painted with the same progressive brush thereby alienating whites who see the candidate as too far-left.
Although it would probably come to naught the "Squad "should request going into the belly of the beast and do an interview on Fox; perhaps with Chris Wallace and take the fight to Trump. Perhaps by demonstrating their humanity to his audience it has the potential; albeit it a slight one, to illustrate Trumps inhumanity. Not optimistic but as Sun Tzu has written; surprise the enemy and attack them at their strong points.
2
I've changed the nature of comments that I will now make on nytimes articles.
We are all, myself included, participating in the echo chamber.
Journalism needs to keep publishing these articles to keep us informed and our nation free.
But we readers need to get our rears in gear and boots on the ground.
That means whatever you or I are able and can afford to do: join nationwide organizations and write postcards; register voters in red states; volunteer in a campaign in a red state; write checks.
What are some other ideas, or your opinions of the most effective ways?
4
The fact that tens of millions of people agree with and follow this abhorrent man is the truly scary aspect of what is happening and how low we have sunk as a nation. Even when this is over and dignity returns to our White House, the problems will remain. We will never be united again. We have accelerated our decline both home and abroad by abandoning our national creed. We cannot be trusted. Our influence is being trashed justifiably. And that is inherently and frighteningly dangerous.
1
Guess what? "You're free to leave if you aren't happy" has been said by numerous supporters of authoritarian governments in history.
1
The stable genius has done the impossible and united the Democrats more than ever. Even Pelosi is defending the Squad. I didn't think it could be done. Thanks, Donnie!
1
We are witnessing a president of the United States normalizing overt and deliberate racism and bigotry and the silence from the GOP is deafening. Trump has no other interest or talent other than playing the reality star bully who gives his base bread and circus. He feeds people of color to the lions and his base goes wild with glee.
I am so ashamed that there is so much hatred in this country and I am even more ashamed that for Trump’s base, hating people of color is a form of patriotism. Nationalism driven by hatred is not patriotic. It is dangerous.
Approaching the age of 69, I do not expect in my lifetime to see us as a nation devoted to equality, liberty, tolerance and justice for all. The hate that was unleashed in 2016 will not dissipate into the atmosphere. Trump’s singular talent is to make America hate again and to promulgate the fiction that this hatred is a form of patriotism.
I am literally cringing at the thought of a president of America telling women of color to go back home. I don’t know what America I am presently living in but it doesn’t feel like home.
Vote.
2
This is an individual who represents the worst beliefs about immigration and the promise of a new future.
He believes that where you were born and the conditions of your birth permanently define the type of person you are and the rights you should be granted. His definition of what is “good” is fluid, based on whim and skin color.
Fortunately, our country continues to believe and invest in all people through public education, rule of law and economic investments. As someone that came from a poor white family of hard workers, I know fully how those investments changed my life.
That is one of the promises of America, not just that you can arrive here as an immigrant but that this country will invest to give you a different opportunity. It is still a radical concept.
Our president does not believe this, believes millions do not deserve this and some just permanently are “other.”
These are the beliefs that define people, political parties and policy. We do not have to wonder about any nuance of what this president believes and how he continues to act.
1
Thank you Trump, president of this corrupt country, for finally making it so that the rest of America can't deny the overwhelming evidence of severe and oppressive racism in the United States that you have taken out of the chat rooms and into the White House. What activists like myself have always denounced with the assured response that we are playing the race card is now evidently clear that the race card was not a card, but the ugly reality in which America was always been in denial.
4
Let's stay focused. He is wily at pandering to his base. This is how he got elected. If rational Americans (of any ethnicity) have any hope in 2020, we need to get his base to understand how voting for this administration again will harm them, their children, and their futures.
And, we have to get those people who stayed home in 2016 to understand that they MUST. GO. VOTE.
1
This is all misplaced misogyny. Once the US Women won the World Cup Trump was losing the battle against them. Now he needs to lash out at Congresswomen of color. Trump chips away at the edges of our E Pluribus Unum society. He has to divert our attention everyday. And this is classic handbook into his politics of division.
2
They all four seem to disparage and despise the US
Imperfect, but there is much much goodness here.
Opportunity for people of color is much much different (better) than years ago.
Celebrate the continued progress or spout hatred and barbs all day long against the US and against capitalism?
The wacky squad of kids seems to want to follow in the footsteps of Hugo Chavez. Please study the economic history of socialism, and understandable misery it causes.
Trump acts like a buffoon and seems racist; but so does Omar and AOC.
1
Can somebody fill me in on the "extremist" views of the Squad-- I'm a little confused about that one.
1
This is the latest, but undoubtedly not the last of this hatefilled, twisted man's disgusting rhetoric. I applaud the avoidance of using his title since it is not deserved. We must keep our eyes on the primary objective: winning the White House and the Senate back and restoring the rule of law and the standard of decency in this country! We can disagree on specific policy positions, but we must free the country of the stench of bigotry and abuse that the man in the White House has tried to impose on the national mindset
Seems to me, the best response to his schoolyard bully comments is to ignore them. If questioned, say "Don't know what he's talking about." To respond is to be pulled into his silly 4th grade world. If we all ignored him we wouldn't be in this mess.
What causes this racism to come out? It is because we have been supporting and encouraging illegal immigration, socialism and suppression of basic rights. While Trump might be a racist, we need to look deeper in what the left has been selling.
@Andrew
Pure Socialism may be a bit much, but many Socialist ideas make life better.
alas, the spirit of resistance, (a necessary quality of democracy), demonstrated by the squad, the left media and most of the weak candidate cluster we’ve thrown in trump’s path, is more than equalled by their ignorance (fatal to constructive debate)...they are only “slogan-deep” in their rantings...(aoc’s ignorance of the asylum process being only one embarrassing example)...their lack of grasp and appetite for its remedy will ensure four more years of trump and likely four more years of the party’s decline and eventual disappearance into factionalism.
I don’t see that Trump has any other strategy to winning the White House than to inflame voter’s emotions. His thinking is simplistic and he’s s displayed a lack of interest in or ability to understand national and international policy. He likes power, understands bullying and that’s pretty much it. Don’t expect more from him. Vote him out.
2
More class in their little fingers than in the entire Republican party. Thank you, ladies, for your gracious and dignified response to our hideous president and his vitriol.
1
What's the difference between Trump and a vicious racist? The question is rhetorical.
1
DEMS will lose by making this about how unfit & repugnant don the con is.
they will win by offering up real solutions to health CARE, infrastructure, education.
they will win by showing how GOP has done NOTHING on these issues.
1
All elected republicans are not objecting to Trump for one reason. They know how vindictive Trump is, and they they fear his wrath.
It is left to decent, courageous, morally strong Americans to stand up against Trump and against anyone who believes in what Trump believes.
The House of Representatives should impeach Trump for a large number of reasons. The primary legal reasons are laid out in section 2 of the Mueller report, regarding Trump's numerous efforts to obstruct justice. But moral reasons to impeach Trump including his many racist acts and statements.
America must rid itself of this file, cancerous canker on our lives. On November 3, 2020, America must speak with one voice against Trump and all he stands for.
The battle lines of 2020 are drawn.
God Bless America
It’s future is a moment away....
1
I've changed my mind about Twitter. I thought that the platform should stop Trump from making insane and unsubstantiated comments. Ok, LIES. No longer. I now believe that their strategy all along was to coax our racist, vicious, self-absorbed president to reveal his true self. Which he has done with amazing ability.
So many readers express concern that we "lefties" characterize all Trump supporters as racist. Tactically - it may be a concern. Factually - it is accurate.
Racism is not just KKK style, lynchings and lunch counters. It is a system of perpetual disadvantage where those with power deny full economic and legal rights to those they identify as "the other."
Supporting Trump is, de facto and de jure, sustaining and fueling precisely those kinds of racist dynamics, whether through hateful immigration practices directed at brown folks, suppression of votes of brown and black folks, redistricting to advantage white voters, supporting policies that re-segregate schools, locating asthma inducing facilities in communities of color, allowing water systems to be poisoned with lead . . . and more.
That is what Trump supporters enable, often with undisguised glee. if that's not racist I don't know what is.
I will never vote for trump or any republican they are all crooks.
But these "back benchers" are giving the republicans enough ammunition to give trump reelection on a platter. Get it together.
I am on Medicare and I still have private insurance. Medicare is not free premiums come from my ss check and I pay for supplemental coverage. Ms. Omar is a threat to the dems in
blue MN think how the reps will exploit that. 2020 Save America
Save your family, Save yourself, Dump trump, Crush the gop,
VOTE. Biden Harris get behind this ticket stop the bickering
Where are our former presidents!? Why are they not forcefully speaking out against this hate?
1
I like to think we are all too intermingled with friends and family and co-workers of all races and creeds to let this horrible president's racism infect our better nature. Times are changing and we are changing. We need leaders who are willing to engage in reasonable discussions of how to negotiate a very complex future and not get derailed by fear mongering and irresponsible behavior. These four women have put their careers on the line to participate honestly along with Pelosi and I applaud them all. We are on track to defeating this miserable administration and getting back to the work that needs to be done so that we all can enjoy and participate in a better future.
106
@Christine Gilbertson I hope you're right. The scary thing is that I still see people defend him and rationalize his behavior.
4
@Christine Gilbertson well said with a forward looking direction
3
@Christine Gilbertson
Everyone and every media outlet need to stop giving free platform and time to someone whose name needs to be stricken from use. To refuse to use his name is to dishonor him. Soon to ignore him as he slips from our memories will be that good has vanquished evil.
Why doesn't Trump do his job and take care of business, such as lowering drug prices and negotiating trade agreements?
4
Actually this is great news. Donald has confirmed that he is helpless to solve his problems and the only way is to give his power to the other side to solve his problems for him. I AM HELPLESS AND WEAK. PLEASE HELP ME. A weak, helpless child calling out for intervention. This is the truth about little Donald.
21
It’s also true with respect to Trump supporters. No well-adjusted person living a financially or otherwise successful life supports this fraud. His support rests on hatred, ignorance and failure that all must be the fault of religious and ethnic minorities.
People need to keep their eyes on the prize, which is Trump, and all of his complicit criminal enablers, going to jail. Only winning back the Senate will accomplish this, because Congress further divided will result in the eventual fall of our great nation under the current occupant of the White House if he wins and still the Senate to obstruct on his behalf.
21
I think his statement that "If you are not happy here, you can leave!" is as bad as the racist statements. I have heard this from his supporters before and I consider it highly anti-democratic and authoritarian. He is saying that no one should have a right to try to change anything about America that they do not like. He is saying that rather than being the president for all the people in the US he only supports those who support him and would like the rest to leave. In a democracy, it is normal for close to half of the people to vote against you, but you are still expected to represent everyone and do what is best for the country as a whole.
30
They should make it clear that they are happy to be in the US but that people like Trump are trying to destroy what America aims to stand for: Justice before the law and equal opportunity.
9
@Nb
They have but the normal media doesn’t give them a clear voice and is nearly as biased as Fox News. They don’t want to show you a 30 minute meeting or the whole picture probably because news has been reduced to sound bites and bad opinions.
You’ll hear a 10 minute diatribe on Fox News about them nearly every week. Many of the posters here is the Fox News talking points from the right wing propaganda.
2
Trump's entire campaign was a rant about everything that he claimed is wrong with America today. (He even said the President of the United States was not legitimately elected - if that's not a big national flaw, what is?) His inaugural address was a dark litany of crises and disasters that he alleged had been inflicted on the U.S. by previous politicians. HTF does this man, of all people, get away with saying that if you don't love everything about this country you should go back where you came from? I'm surprised people aren't seriously suggesting he go back to Germany, if he's so appalled by so much in these United States.
14
"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out. . ." "Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
Where are the Republican leaders, the evangelical leaders, Graham's "aim higher" seems to be as strong of a stand that any of them will take, and that is in glaring contrast with Pence's silence on Christian principles.
14
@Greg
Where are the Evangelical leaders?
They're standing in their backyards watching the sky and waiting for Jesus to appear there!
To the people who believe all of Trump's lies and deceptions: Disagreeing or even criticizing is not synonymous to hating.
Actually, it could well be out of concern, even if misguided.
Trump is playing you, you should know that by now.
Besides, their criticism was directed at certain people in government, not the entire country. Listen, analyze and think.
9
When Trump says socialism, he is manipulating people to feel fear and division. What people like Sanders are talking about is Social Democracy and Sanders knows that the countries that are rated the best countries in the world to live for education, health care, quality of life are socially democratic.
I know that many Americans believe their country to be the best country in the world. Time to adventure beyond your driveway and church. Visit other countries whenever you can.
The USA could be great but not with Trump. He is driving it into the ground. He is sick with greed. He sends his son's and daughter out to make deals so his family can get richer and richer.
Meanwhile the chaos he creates hurts millions. I am afraid to come into the USA. It appears to be a seething hornets nest of shooting and hate.
When Trump leaves office, he will retire as one of the richest people in the world and the USA will have to pick up after his destruction and put things together again.. if this is even possible.
Please Trump supporters. Wake up. You say he is helping your country economically. But at what cost? And is he really?
17
A segment of American voters, plus an antiquated electoral college system of elections, has created an American Frankenstein. If this creature is given a second term, he will devour the townspeople and their children.
13
Well, at least no one is wondering whether or not trump is associated with Jeffrey Epstein. Mission accomplished. Give it the week and this too will become old news. Well, he might need to come up with some nasty little additions around the time of Mueller's testimony.
5
Chris, This is exactly what I was thinking!
Trump accuses AOC and the Squad as "not loving" America, when he is the one who has embraced Putin after Russia undermined America's election, has actively undermined American security by weakening NATO, alienating our European allies, and undermining beneficial international treaties, and dodged the Vietnam draft, meaning someone else went while he was partying away on his bone spurs at Studio 54. If anyone should "go back" to where he comes from, it's Trump, although I'm pretty sure Queens county doesn't want him.
22
I just listened to the Squad's news conference - broadcast in full on Democracy Now. They did themselves proud. Their response was spot on. I recommend listening to it in full.
19
They're clean and shiny now, right? Well scripted to show how they're being mistreated.
We have the internet now so you can search for their videos and tweets. You may find some differences.
Right from the beginning there have been Republicans who thought it possible to support Trump without supporting his demagoguery. It doesn't work that way, and if they didn't know it then, surely they know it now. If they continue to stay in his corner, they own the dark forces he is corralling and unleashing just as much as he does.
16
Trump may energize his base with these outrageous comments, but he will not gain any new voters. More likely many independents and more fair-minded Republicans will swing Democratic. Trump has very little margin for error in his re-election campaign. This week's behavior may well have erased that margain. Now the Democrats need to unify and solidify their base in preparation for 2020.
11
Don’t fall the trick of calling racist attitudes “white resentment”. Whites were never enslaved. They have no right or basis for feeling resentment—and certainly not toward people of color. This is simply hate for the purpose of hate. As such, it is morally repugnant on its face. Like the current occupant of the White House. Unlike Trump, each of these members of the House were elected by a majority of the constituency they represent. In that sense, they more legitimately hold their respective offices than he does,
23
AOC has it right. Trump's antics are and always have been a distraction. The Mercers, Kochs and billionaires are all loving the show they've arranged.
I just hope the Dems get their stuff together. And that means that the old guard - such as Pelosi - must shift to the left. Social Democracy is the only way forward.
15
Any one who tells someone else to leave and go back home (or whatever) should be asked to leave our planet.
16
The so-called president's rhetoric is the verbal equivalent of burning a cross in the Rose Garden. An old white man tells four young women of color to "go back" to some other country. It's like something you'd see in a shaky cell 'phone video.
Here's the thing. They aren't going anywhere. And neither are the people who find this so-called president reprehensible.
In the mean time, the so-called president is not worthy of five seconds of attention. See you on November 3, 2020. Have a nice day.
21
A few more nationwide news conferences on live TV by the Squad, and Trump will win 47 States.
5
@Dr. John
They are typical progressive ideologues. No clue about how unpopular they really are. Convinced of their moral superiority. Willing to tank the party rather than compromise.
1
We Democrats need to stop taking the bait, and the news needs to stop printing every offensive thing he says. It's not new and it's distracting us from issues that matter, like ICE raids.
We know the president is racist, xenophobic and belligerent. There's nothing to announce there, and nothing that words will fix.
10
When the Emancipation Proclamation was passed under Lincoln, many whites told the African Americans to "go back", after profiting from their free labor for decades.
The occupant is just repeating racist history.
Not an original thought in his empty head.
His "polices" are across the board cruelty for anyone who step out of his line.
The US is failing across the board as well and our myths are falling one by one as this occupant destroys all that was once fairly OK in this country.
We have lost more rights to fear this century at at any other time in our history. Basically, the only constitutional right we have left is to shoot each other.
We sure don't have the right to privacy in our persons papers and effects, do we?
10
@Southvalley Fox
Just for the sake of historical accuracy, and only for that reason, we must recall that Lincoln proposed a plan to "relocate" liberated African-Americans to Central America. A few thousand people were in fact "resettled".
From the NYT
https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/16/lincolns-panama-plan/?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=A49BDD07F78686986E9E90EC9DEC9B88&gwt=pay
I am glad that such ideas are inconceivable today .. or so I thought.
Donald Trump is adept at interpreting his own comments in such a way as to make them incredibly diluted. This latest comment is without doubt racist. Had anyone else in the U.S. made it they would have been properly admonished by everyone including the Republican party. From the U.K. it has been a real lesson in just how much power Trump holds when members of the Republican party refuse to admit that his comment was racist. Being frightened of your own President is not good. I cannot recall any other U.S. President in living memory (69 years in my case), who caused so many political peers to be fearful. What it tells me and I am sure others, is that Trump should be of concern to the entire world. He is a tyrant with dynastic ambitions and unless the American people act soon, he will be too established to easily remove.
13
Democrats: Stop shouting "racist" at every political opponent who supports Trump policies. The majority don't like the man, despise his Twitter tactics and are not racist. You are mired in identity politics and are as responsible for dividing this country as he is.
In the meantime, you are getting nothing accomplished while he has effectively tackled trade, brought back jobs and more jobs and is trying to do something about immigration.
You will surely lose in 2020 if you don't refute the "free goodies for everyone" and open borders nonsense. But you can win if you get off the impeachment train, stop fighting in the mud, pass some good infrastructure and health care bills, and make the next election about issues.
10
@Anne
Trump selected four minority female members of the House of Representatives at which to hurl his unhinged vitriol. This is unprecedented and appalling, and unbefitting to the office of the President. He is also not getting as much "accomplished" as you seem to think; mass warehousing of asylum seekers in filthy, crowded conditions and demonizing traumatized people is not "trying to do something about immigration." The only people who keep pushing the "free goodies for everyone" and "open borders nonsense" lies are Trump and his supporters. Stop lecturing Democrat about what they should do and start asking Republicans why they are so intent on following Trump's continued descent into bestiality.
1
Representatives Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar , Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley are goading the president with great skill and laudable restraint. Trump, inevitably, goes lower and the progressive women respond with dignity and poise.
I cannot think of a better way to further enrage this president who is so lacking in self control and stature.
I hope this approach is duly noted by the Democratic leadership and eventually extends to include every current and former member of the freedom caucus and tea party caucus.
Maybe this is the way forward for the Democratic Party.
Target the zealots where they live by challenging what really matters to them--their manhood, their intellect, their racism.
Reduce them all to sputtering, impotent, exasperated, rage.
8
For those people who can’t see the bigotry in Trump’s tweets, imagine telling a white American of European descent to “go back to where you came from” if he was born in America. It would be absurd ( although the Irish and Italians heard this insult all the time)m. So Trump’s tweets only make sense in the context of, in this case, racial bigotry, because he is saying to his base “they are other.”
5
@Oliver
Many of us have a very different take on what the president said. It was much more involved than "go back where you came from."
I can easily see telling someone lecturing others on what they are doing wrong to go fix a real problem and then get back to us. We've all been there. Being lectured by someone who doesn't know anything and who couldn't pull off what he/she is telling everyone else to do.
Trump was, essentially, telling Omar to put her money where her mouth is. Then there are the Americans who are still incensed by their anti-American comments, which, by the way, they failed to dispel with one press conference.
4
@AACNY
"Being lectured by someone who doesn't know anything and who couldn't pull off what he/she is telling everyone else to do."
How true this statement is, but not for the reasons you would like to think.
Donald Trump doesn't take his office seriously, cannot or will not temper his worst impulses, is openly contemptuous of his critics and opponents and pretty much over half of the citizens of the United States, cannot keep people in his Cabinet and on the White House staff, and everyday continues to prove that he is unfit to carry out the duties of the office he holds. It's really hard to take him and his slavish devotees seriously with all this going on. Trump is the last person anybody with a functioning brain should listen to about anything.
1
Does anyone else think we need to add another -ism?
Donald Trump is exhibiting his sexism, as well.
I truly believe he would not be saying these things, at least not as crassly or confidentily, were he "picking on people his own size."
6
@Peggy Rogers: There is something about Trump in every chapter of the diagnostic symptoms manual used by psychologists and psychiatrists.
3
On July 26, 2019, Rep. Ilhan Omar begged a judge to go easy on an ISIS recruit. She said the terrorist was a "victim" of "systematic alienation" and "direct marginalization" who was interested in "fighting perceived injustice."
5
@Dr. John
This is why millions of Americans support the president when he called her out. Omar is a disgrace to our country. And one doesn't have to be a wild-eyed patriot to feel this way.
@Dr. John
Uh, this is 7/16/2019.
Would trump have been so brazen had these been 4 white guys?
He intimidated Hillary where he paced behind her during one of the debates as the creep he is. Now he's trying to put down 4 women who dare speak out against him. The fact they are not white and have atypical "American" names is a bonus.
I don't think trump is doing this as a strategy to win as much as he's just trying to prove the world he's the alpha male and women are not part of the pecking order.
Beyond the 4 congresswomen, what is with Melania? Why doesn't she come forward to defend these women? Is she kept in her place by trump or does she also believe white is good and color not?
I have never been impressed with trump. I have lost respect for members of his family who remain silent. I have no respect for anyone defending him.
If he gets reelected and Republicans stay the majority, then our country has changed and for the worse. We will be in for at least 8 more years of discord. A generation from now we could still be trying to repair the damages.
12
It was not a great press conference. They didn't stay on topic and sounded way to entitled.
7
We are all playing Trump’s game.
He holds the marked cards, deals from the bottom of the deck and controls the house.
We are suckers for coming to the table.
But he’s the best show in town- so expect us to keep coming back for more.
We all live in Deadwood now.
15
If US citizens are to go back to the land of their ancestors, I hope the President will show leadership on this issue by going first.
13
Once again , the Attention Seeker in Chief has controlled the debate and made sure to bring it to his very low level. It is not even an original notion. He got it from his followers who say this sort of thing all the time. And he has complained about his tweets not having the shock value they used to have. Yes, we have really fallen when we discover ( it was well known actually all along ) that we have a racist president. Now focus on his lack of anything ( except for a bill in which he awarded himself a huge tax cut ) having gotten done and ignorance of policy. I urge everyone to stop letting Trump hide behind these dramas and focus on what we have become in terms of policy
11
Ah, politics. The good, the bad and the ugly. Whats going on with our politicians is shameful. From the President on down. Not that is was better before Trump but maybe a tad more civil. Room for compromise. Unity with our allies. I miss that. It seems to me theres a collorary between the divisiveness we see in politics and the growth of social media ie facebook, twitter, instagram etc over the years. The ideas and speech of hate that was somewhat invisible generations before social media can now make a nobody a 'star' overnight. An idea a movement overnight. The haters now have a platform that can be far reaching. Im sorry to say its gotten out of hand. Where it ends is anybody guess. We have to balance our rights of freedom of speech to where we draw the line with expressions of hate that are so demoralizing and in many cases are acted out in real time. We may be able to cut down the level of hate once Trump is out and we can heal some wounds. Maybe even start talking to one another without the visceral hate. But I don't have high expectations. We are in an experiment called democracy that is 243 years old. Where we go from here not sure. But an old political adage that says 'Democracy is a very bad form of government but all the others are so much worse' gives me some hope that we can get back on track and act like Americans once again. A true beacon to the rest of the world where hope lies eternal
4
It's deja vu all over again. We're back in the 60's with "America, Love It or Leave" bumper stickers.
5
If Trump likes America, please pay taxes. He certainly takes advantage of free vacations on a weekly schedule. Millions of dollars wasted flying him and his extended family around, but his brag is- he is getting over on us. What are the numbers? Free trips to political rallies?
18
What happened to "when they go low, we go high"?
Dems cannot afford to fight in the trenches dug by this OOO (occupant of the oval office) if we want a President back.
Shame on the "squad" for disrespecting their own party leadership and starting this mud fight. Kudos to all elected Dems - and Reps - who are standing together to defend the "squad's" right to speak their political views, and not be so viciously attacked for their race or gender or religion.
But when are we going to take the ideals so eloquently expressed by our former President and First Lady to heart, and embrace one another as Americans, and work for the benefit of not just ourselves but all of humanity?
When will we stop elevating the OOO's childish and hateful rants by endlessly and publicly debating them head on, instead of dismissing them as despicable and not worthy of our time, and moving on to real issues, and ideals, that speak to the hearts and minds of all people? Trump's supporters love their children, too. They want and deserve equal opportunity, a good job, health care, and security, just like his opponents do. Children of all colors, all religions, deserve food, clean water and safety. Let's talk about how to achieve that for all, instead of making the issues always about one bully's behavior.
4
Trump painted a dour picture of this country during his inauguration address. Perhaps he should have followed his own advice.
7
When Trump is gone, watch all his cronies run away from him, making up excuses why they stuck with him. I hope they all pay dearly for this. People don't forget. They are with him or against him. No turning back now.
12
Donald Trump's mother was an immigrant. His father's parents were immigrants. Two of his wives have been immigrants. He brought to the U.S some of his current wife's family. (Oops, isn't that the "chain migration" he constantly condemns?)
I'd like to tell Donald to go home, only I have too much empathy for his homeland - which is any and every nation that might be.
12
They all four seem to disparage and despise the US
Imperfect, but there is much much goodness here.
Opportunity for people of color is much much different (better) than years ago.
Celebrate the continued progress or spout hatred and barbs all day long against the US and against capitalism?
The wacky squad of kids seems to want to follow in the footsteps of Hugo Chavez. Please study the economic history of socialism, and understandable misery it causes.
2
This is how he stirs up his base. He manufactures a nonexistent problem then blames the other side. Of course Democrats have to respond. That makes it begin to snowball and the more back-and-forths there are the bigger that snowball becomes as it rolls down the hill making his base increasingly rabid with each turn.
4
“go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done.”
This quote has nothing to do with country or race. It could refer to the neighborhood, city, state or country. Why is everybody quoting it as if it refers to a different country?
6
I thought the same!
3
@Bicycle Bob A sizeable portion of the entire world is tying itself into knots trying to concoct racism out of Trump's comments. Trump could certainly be more thoughtful or selective in his comments. But if he was seeking to paint his political opponents as angry, spoiled brats who are the natural outcome of failed Democrat machines, mission accomplished.
@Bicycle Bob
Since you asked here is his complete tweet including the part conveniently left out.
"So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly...…
....and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, 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. Then come back and show us how..."
He clearly says" countries". There is no mention of neighborhood, city or state. What is unfortunate is his description of where they came from (which is the USA for 3 of the 4) perfectly describes his administration.
Here's the thing: Whether or not Trump is racist is besides the point. He makes these sorts of comments for politically calculated reasons: he knows the liberal media--which is utterly obsessed with identity politics--is going to go ballistic over them along with its readership. And reactions to what he says from the liberal media are in turn covered by the conservative media, which generates its own coverage to engage their own readership. It's that simple. Trump makes these comments, the liberals react, the conservatives react, his base becomes more engaged. Trump wins in 2020.
Welcome to the real world.
7
Mr. Trump has no internal moral compass. “A lot of people agree with me” was the best he could do in his own defense. Morality by ratings? Sounds about right for someone who is qualified only to be a reality tv show personality, and not remotely for the Office of the President of the United States.
18
I think he’s attacking them now because he feels most threatened by their media charisma and enthusiastic support, especially AOC’s. Far more threatened by her than the candidates running for office against him at the moment, it appears. The trip to the southern border with AOC’s emotional eyewitness reports last week and the impassioned description of the state of cruel conditions at migrant camps run by ICE were starting to get through to the general public. AOC’s face and presence with other Democrats who were there were on TV and social media constantly taking attention away from him his message spin. So now he wants to turn the tables and make them the villains. They also have policy ideas that many younger voters find appealing and galvanizing. No doubt T would prefer these potential voters become discouraged and stay out of politics altogether, especially with 2020 coming up fast. No doubt he will pull the same heightened/hysterical media blitz attacks on any Democratic presidential opponent who appears to gain greater ground. Expect the worst as the election grows closer.
15
Those who want to impeach him should be focusing their energies and cooperating to change the composition of the Senate from Republican to Democratic. Otherwise, impeachment will do nothing but make him stronger.
11
The man is simply reprehensible. The sooner he goes the better off we’ll be. He has made a mockery of our democratic institutions and demeaned the office of President. Utterly disgraceful.
20
President Trump’s perceptions of things show a decided dearth of characteristics wanted in any mature, American male, most of all the President. Insecurity, immaturity and lack of and rejection of sophistication. Poor education and upbringing taught him only skills better suited for the criminal underground, no counterbalance. His blatant use of the schoolboy persona gives us to believe he really is this person he acts out. There is no political agenda except fleecing the American taxpayers and working to perpetuate the cult of the white, male, locker room jocks, crude raconteurs, and money hoarders.
This attack on these Congresswomen would have a different derogatory tilt if it had been four, Democratic men, or four, white Democratic women, but it would have been something. They’d have been losers or have horse faces. They’d have come from States that can’t manage this or that or has failed at Harvard or Stanford, but these three happen to represent immigrants, or so he thinks. So that’s what he went after to demonize and dehumanize immigrants. It’s so obvious it’s actually funny. This isn’t racist, it’s just common everyday bigotry. Just common everyday bigotry. From that person in the WH who, because he is so flawed, should have no truck with the American people. He’s not fit to clean any of our boots. He cheapens our world every day.
14
Elect a clown, expect a circus.
23
We heard the same rhetoric from Nixon in the 1960’s and many times since and nothing has changed. We were called “communists” regularly and “America: Love it or Leave it” was a popular bumper sticker. In 1968 Nixon was elected in a landslide, so this stuff works. Hopefully, these four brave American women, our duly elected Representatives, will start a landslide of Democrats with the guts to stand up to this President, stand against white supremacy, racism and dictatorship and back these four gutsy ladies all the way. But I’m not holding my breath.
229
@robert lachman Nixon was not elected by a landslide in 68. In fact, Humphrey was closing on him fast. It was a landslide in 72.
6
@robert lachman Absolutely! It was called The Southern Strategy and the goal was to get racist Dems into the Republican fold. It worked.
10
For the sake of historical accuracy, Nixon's landslide was his reelection in 1972. The 1968 election was quite close.
5
So Trump is using this to fire up his base. Well it works both ways. The Democrats can use this to fire up their base as well. Trump has already succeeded in uniting quarreling factions within the Democratic Party.
But the Democrats would be wise to keep the election about policy and change. Show America how it will look with a new president and new senate. It is true that negative politics wins elections but the Democrats have to go positive to win in 2020.
11
We have to stop focusing on race. This feeds directly into Trumps directive. Also the squad does not speak for all people of color. I do it agree with trump. But I don’t want the squad to ensure that Trump gets another term.
We cannot give Trump a pass. However we can not avoid important issues such as a real strategy for immigration. We cannot continue the current approach. Also we need a balance between socialistic poultices and polices that focus on the rich.
We cannot accept a focus that takes us back to the 1950s.
Trump is a awful human being. You don’t need to be an awful human being to be the adult in the room for good economic polices and ensure we have systems that support the less fortunate.
We have to stop giving air to Trumps nonsense. We also need a senate that supports the country and not their party and Trump.
.
8
David Alexrod on Twitter admitted to the dark genius of Trump's move. Trump has effectively made it impossible for Pelosi to continue distancing the Democratic Party brand from 'the Squad'. Nancy is now trapped into bear hugging them such that they, once again, are front and center as the face of the Democratic Party. She well knows that isn't sustainable in the long term as 'the Squad' will eventually say something that requires rebuke from the party.
9
Add the text of Rep. Malinowski's resolution condemning racism to this reminder of what the Democrats have always stood for and you have the outline of a platform that should unite all Democrats:
"Republicans approve of the American farmer, but they are willing to help him go broke. They stand four-square for the American home—but not for housing. They are strong for labor—but they are stronger for restricting labor's rights. They favor minimum wage—the smaller the minimum wage the better. They endorse educational opportunity for all—but they won't spend money for teachers or for schools. They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine—for people who can afford them ... They think American standard of living is a fine thing—so long as it doesn't spread to all the people. And they admire the Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it."
— Harry S. Truman, October 13, 1948, St. Paul, Minnesota, Radio Broadcast[
19
The four Democrats, as well as many others, need to consider an old phrase, and I paraphrase it a bit:
"When engaging, and arguing, with a buffoon and a fool who, then, is the larger one?"
Ignore the man, the fool, and concentrate on that which you are after. Do not allow yourself to be deflected from it. Stay focused on the goal.
The noises mean nada, and by the nature of his high-pitched histrionics it signals just how uncomfortable you are already making him. So stay focused and ignore the smoke. The prize, after all, is well worth the effort. His removal, either by direct impeachment or by simply insuring he doesn't repeat.
Consigning him, his family and all his minions, to the scrap-heap of history is the goal to achieve, by one step at a time...
John~
American Net'Zen
8
Oh President, Our President, STAY OFF TWITTER and learn to be Presidential!
We didn't hire you to be cute, or thin skinned, or head of a political party -- manage the Administration!
Of course our Politics of Hatred will sink America. Our Best and Brightest stay out of higher public office, leaving the field to despicable lightweight wannabe's. Our media supports and encourages the Haters because they feel you and I will look at the ads on the side of the page more if someone is eviscerated.
And the media plays politics. I don't care if they attack a sitting President -- that keeps them in line. But what comes next if they win fills me with dread -- if "their" candidate wins, every action bad for America will be swept under the rug and their worth that is why the First Amendment protection goes away.
3
@Tom Mariner
"We didn't hire you to be cute, or thin skinned, or head of a political party -- manage the Administration!"
You knew what he what he was all about and how grossly unqualified he is for the office he holds - if this isn't what you wanted, then why did you vote for him? To "get back at liberals?" That's not good enough and indicative of arrested emotional development. The idea that people think this kind of behavior is acceptable fills me and a lot of other people with dread, and we're finding our fears to be more based in reality as the lurid, toxic Trump "presidency" drags on.
It cracks me up that he-who-shall-not-be-named says they should/can, “just leave,” if they don’t, “like it here.” As US citizens and Congresswomen—they have an obligation to “change” what they and their constituents don’t like about the country via Congress. That’s their job. He’s such a child.
13
Every time these four open their mouths it’s a gift to Republicans. Do Omar and Tlaib realize what they are on record as saying? Their foul-mouthed invectives against Israel will be played over and over during the election year, When attempting to answer any questions, they were completely incoherent.
12
@Jackson
If anyone had forgotten, Trump made sure to remind them when he said she owes Israel an apology. The man has a knack for finding and exploiting weaknesses, and, boy, are those four a weakness.
1
Does Tucker Carlson or the President understand or value the First Amendment? In a banana republic one must toe the official line and never dissent or critique policies / personalities in power. Is that what is being touted as patriotism in the present administration? In the hue and cry over racism, real or not, there's the danger of overlooking that freedom to speak or voice criticism is in peril. This is an issue that should unite every Democrat, Republican, Libertarian and Independent.
10
Interesting that these four Congresswomen identified themselves as the subject of the original tweet, since the only one that actually fit the description (of being from another country) was Congresswoman Omar.
9
She’s a citizen as well what’s the point
Impeachment hearings of Nixon had a good portion of Republicans with right wing tendencies they were never as far right as the Trump supporters are today.
I say let us start the process against Trump and see if they have the guts to stand up with Democrats by forcing them to participate in impeachment process before us on National TV not including Fox.
8
Canadians just can't understand. We've always looked up to our neighbour and previous administrations have given us good reasons to view US as a world leader. Difficult to believe how fast & how far the US has fallen in the eyes of Canadians and the rest of the world. The reasons for this precipitous fall started with Trump but the blame is now with all the men & women who are in a position to do something about it and don't. Voting citizens will have a chance to again hold their heads high as they travel to other countries if they vote with their heads and hearts rather than with their party.
23
It should be obvious by now that this outrageous president is attacking progressives who represent the political position of candidates most dangerous to him on the hustings.
It is also obvious that he makes this attack not long after a leading member of the Democratic Party has dismissed the position of the four brave women whose very lives have been made more insecure.
Both the Republican president and the leaders of the Democratic Party have now made clear how much they fear the threat of the political policies so clearly enunciated by AOC and the presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders.
7
I have noticed that when, in a dispute, I resort to name calling it means I don't have a rational argument. I have also noticed that President Trump always resorts to name calling. Hmm.
14
From my point of view it is Trump who hates America, at least the version of it that I love. He is the architect of our current hate and division and is the president of just a fraction of the nation.
I don't see how we go back to being a normal, functional country again after Trump's vile reign finally ends. It will take a serious reevaluation of what this country is and what it truly stands for.
If it turns out that Trump's vision of this country is real then I am done and I wash my hands of the hate, persecution, prejudice and warmongering that defines it today.
16
Four young ladies in a hurry.
Oh the irony. A president whose grandfather was an immigrant, whose mother was an immigrant, who has been married to two women who are first generation immigrants and whose in laws realized their ability to live in America after immigrating. The hypocrisy is beyond belief. Yet somehow he never understands how foolish his fear based tactics and rhetoric sound, how incomprehensible his inaccurate facts are and how hollow his integrity seems.
24
Liberals are missing the forest for the trees.
The Squad brought this in themselves with their constant hate-speak and ridiculous demands.
Even Nancy put them in their place last week.
Today they had no idea how extreme and dangerous they sounded to the average working American and to moderate voters.
8
@Dr. John "Today they had no idea how extreme and dangerous they sounded to the average working American and to moderate voters"by proposing medicare for all, which would mean the average working stiff would not have to mortgage the house to pay for an operation.
How dangerous can you get, "doctor"?
These four Congresswomen seem to be getting under your skin. Do you live in any of their districts? They represent the voters in their districts, no one else. Their ideas are just theirs, and they have every right to express them. Perhaps they are vanguards of the future, perhaps not.
You can disagree with them, but you’re not just disagreeing. Something about these young elected women with new ideas and the courage to own their own spaces without apology riles you and similar commenters.
Something is off about the vehemence of these reactions, especially given the absence of substantive disagreement.
@Dr. John
The Sqaud brought “this” on themselves?
Trump inflicted “this” on the entire nation!
should a president under investigation for collusion w/ a foreign country really be criticizing others for being un-American?
20
Let us not forget about the power of distraction. Who has not been able to build a border wall? Who has been unable to put an end to the ACA? Who is not looking forward to extended questioning about the Mueller report later this month?
In recent polling, one of the greatest concerns of the citizens of this country is the future of healthcare, not the origins of elected representatives to House and whether they should return to the countries they or their families came from.
The Democrats need to acknowledge their big tent includes a multiplicity of members, not all of whom will agree with the majority of members the majority of the time. The more divisive the rhetoric of the president, the more distraction from the goals of the party as a whole--not just elected officials, but also the citizens who put them there.
7
Did any of these Congresswomen say that they hated the country ? Hated Israel ? I never heard either. Those are Trump's words. They may hate what our country has become during Trump's term. So do I. 'Love it or leave it ?'. Sorry. Love it and change it. Change it back to a moral, honest place to live. Wash the stain that Trump has left on the office into the nearest sewer.
41
Trump = Racist, always was, always is, always will be. Republicans stop defending him, it makes you reveal your unsavory core.
27
90% of the basis of my vote for President is based on economic policies. So, in a hypothetical election between Trump and AOC, I know I would vote for Trump. Trump is an awful human being but AOC and the “squad” are socialists who would destroy the economy.
16
@Sue
AOC isn’t running for President. She is a junior member from one district. She no more represents her party or its future presidential candidate than does any outlier Republican Congressman represent his whole party. Make no mistake, a vote for Trump is a vote for white nationalism and racism, and represents a victory for his lies and ability to stir up the base with falsehoods. You say you will vote for his economics; please note that he filed for bankruptcy six times, sustained nearly a billion in losses over a decade, and no American bank would lend to him. He will run the US into the ground, just as he did many of his businesses. Moreover, this country thrives only because of the rule of law and respect for democratic norms, which he routinely disregards. Don’t fall for his propaganda.
19
AOC not running for President, if she was she would not win. She is not in the majority.
3
@Sue What are you going to do about borrowing, and the next recession, promised for within the next 6 months?
6
I would suggest that as to the four women involved TRUMP IS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!
BUT, this is only because they ALL came from the USA or are naturalized, citizens, and so the USA is the country Trump is therefore referring to. What else could it mean?
Trump is not saying much more than that the USA is corrupt and broken. And we know these women are trying, whether we agree with them or not on everything, to have the USA do better in living up to its promises.
Yes, he means his statement as a racist insult and he means to energize his sad and disgraceful base of racist voters, but even so. In the end it it is an insult to the USA, and no where else.
9
The Republican only have courage to speak if they plan to retire from or when they leave congress. Paul Ryan is a typical example. They are all scared. He eat their soul according to Jim Comey.
4
Peanut
Exactly, my Senator Susan Collins had to say things like she is not for socialism before she said Trump should not have said it. Well we in Maine our not for socialism. Collins knows that. I felt that her speech was written by Trump.
2
These women are the first elected-Democrats to go after Trump with the clarity and fire that such a fight demands. When they go low (and they always will), step on them. A true breath of fresh air for those of us who are desperate for someone to stand up to this humiliating wannabe dictator and defend what is left of our democracy.
14
Someone plausibly may have said this before here, but I cannot check 3000 comments: Could these racist remarks by Trump not be a cynical or even desperate way to distract the public's attention from the Jeffrey Epstein affair which occurred in his social circle?
Racism still has some support in the public, and may even help to get votes. On the other hand, pedophilia, just as rape, has no support: it could involve your own daughters. Rapists and pedophiles are shunned even in prison.
14
Bingo! Just a distraction, because the Emperor is just like Epstein, minus the billions of dollars.
Trump relishes in and counts on the blaze of publicity he gets, and his most outrageous conduct is precisely meant to court that publicity. The press has the power to stop Trump by ignoring him. This TV mogul would wither and die if noone reacted. The man may be inept but he knows he’s providing fodder for his gerrymandered base. The ‘squad’ in this instance was attacked but on their own they also have demonstrated and great deal of sound and fury, signifiying??? I’m waiting for some real consequence-other than attacking Pelosi.
3
Sensationalistic remarks. The “White House” occupant will do or say anything that will keep his “brand” on the front page. He is a “shock jock”. It is a game he is playing. Completely unfit for office. Only interested in ratings.
18
In addition to all the well documented and racist rantings of Trump his suggestion that, "If you don't like it, you can leave" tells a lot about his limited understanding of the country. It also illustrates his appeal to many in 'the base'.
Trump's base is, for the most part, composed of people whose families have been here at least a few generations, and deserve credit for their contributions. But they need to accept the reality that not everything works as well as it could, and encourage the spirit and ideas of newcomers.
The various ways we define and act out our freedom has always been the source of both conflict and innovation. However, leaving because we 'don't like it' has been the choice of very few. Most of us work to make it better, to change what doesn't work for us. At best, that process makes us all grow.
In the case of these four women and many like them, I don't think the option of 'leaving' exists. They come from countries which, until recently, have not sent many immigrants to America. They actually believe the words of our constitution; that freshness is the essence of their potential to make America great; but not 'again'.
For the future.
5
A lifelong, independent who always voted Democrat until Hillary came down the pike, I find that what's happening has its roots in Bush Sr.. The erosion of leadership since is appalling
Trump has a mind the size of twitter, but AOC and her 3 thinkalikes are equally as objectionable, rude, crude, and no vision beyond their personal "victimization". If that's where America is going: Trump or them, this country is irreversibly lost.
The choice between one extremism and another is simply no choice.
9
These four Congresswomen represent the voters in their four districts, no one else. They have fresh ideas and the audacity to speak out, but they are not a powerful block of legislators.
That they are provoking so much attention and wrath is troubling - something else is going on here. More than racism. Perhaps misogyny - that pervasive bias in our culture, held by both men and women, that women should signal humility and deference when they speak and act.
These women don’t do that, and they prompt as much if not more outrage for their bold but civil behavior as does vulgarian Trump for his off the charts conduct. Something is off in this reaction.
The tweet alone is thought process of a 5 year old. Astounding in its immaturity, and he revels in it.
9
Since the only thing the Democrats have going for them is racial politics, it follows that they have to racialize any differences they have with Trump or the Republicans. Trump criticizes the four socialist, anti-American representatives the same as Pelosi does (albeit Pelosi uses somewhat less inflammatory language), and
suddenly Democrats want to impeach Trump on yet another imaginary basis.
AOC campaigned in the primary on the slogan that “ we need a representative who looks like us” — that’s real racism.
9
I'm just watching Trump take down the Republican party. It won't be long, now.
8
Trump has to stir the pot because it's the only way to keep people angry and he's losing badly to the top Democratic candidates in polls.
Also, something tells me that this is mostly a distraction from his good buddy's arrest last week.
18
He was losing badly to Hilary in polls. I will never read a poll result again.
2
We're obviously in a negative loop where each incident seems to bring out worse exhibitions from the other side. I think that President Trump is an race instigator. Trump's conduct is a clear danger to the USA.
The problem is that the Democrats and their allies have been playing the racism card with impunity for years. They have had allies in the press accuse GOP Presidents and candidates of racism in every election since Bush Sr. including McCain and Romney. As John McCain found out when he ran for President in 2008, yes the Democrats will cheer you when you take on your own party's flaws, but that won't stop them from hurling the same charge at you later on. Here's Obama playing the race card at John McCain in 2008, "“You know, he’s (Obama) not patriotic enough. He’s got a funny name. You know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills,.." The clear insinuation is that McCain is campaigning on racism. How many Democrats "stood up" to Obama's shameless use of race? None. After playing the race card to their advantage, now the Democrats have a GOP President who is playing the same game but on the other side. The only solution is for both sides to stop playing race for political advantage. As long as it is a political football, it will increasingly divide people and only lead to deeper racial divisions on both sides.
4
Trump has done it again. He sets a trap and we all fall in. To criticize the president and his policies is to love this country and to stand up for our values. Don’t let Trump waste another minute of our precious time in building consensus among all Americans that this man must be replaced in 2020.
6
Trump got worried when he saw Pelosi starting to distance the Democratic Party from the Squad. The polling is very clear how unpopular their views are to independents. He knows the key to victory in 2020 is to paint the Democratic Party as extremist by having them support these individuals who frankly have said some very offensive (anti-semitic) and nutty things (green new deal, open borders, concentration camps, costing NY $27 billion in future tax revenue/Amazon). So is hoping that the party leaders rush to defend the Squad. Pelosi has to stay the course and not fall for the bait. It’s a simple political trap.
9
@Rich But what is "nutty" about a Green New Deal that acts on the findings of atmospheric scientists, not the back yard wishful wavers of wet fingers?
2
Italy serves as an example of how things play out: the center left has suffered disaggregation due to infighting and polarization of the different "souls" of the party - Neoliberal Renzi, ex-communists, catholics -- the road to reconstruction is long and fraught. Meanwhile center right voters now, whether consicious or not -- are going far, far right thanks to ant-immigrant pro-Russia Salvini. It's a mess.
Keep together democrats!
6
This is a tactical ploy by Trump - take the higher road, calmly turn it away, don't inflate -- you will not win as this is what Trump wants. Turn it completely down with class and calm and keep to the message of improvements we need in society and change in leadership.
4
The incessant media coverage of Trump reminds me more of the Jerry Springer show than real news reportage. Walter Cronkite must be rolling over in grave. Shame on the media.
28
Totally agree....he truly does not deserve our time.
1
Trump is not the issue. He is beyond being an issue. The issue is the people that voted for him. The issue is the next election.
Will people of color make the effort to vote against Trump, even if the candidate put forth by the Democrats is white ? Or will they just sit in their chairs and say: « this is bad » ?
We don’t have to have a race war. We can just have an election where people make the effort to vote. And Trump will be gone.
18
Mr. Trump is a minority elected president, he is not America, his bizarre behavior smacks of panic, desperation. America and the world will be well rid of him in 2020.
14
The fox in the henhouse is the distraction for those manipulating our American values.......those who control the finances welcome this fight while they disband our rights.
2
"He goaded them" - I had to stop reading Ms. Davis reporting at that point. Clearly, Ms.Davis doesn't grasp racism and how it must be confronted. That phrase is an attack on four U.S. citizens who happen to be both women and of color. THEY WERE ATTACKED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FOR WHO THEY ARE, do you even grasp what that means Ms. Davis? The last publicly racist president we had was Andrew Johnson, I could also talk about Woodrow Wilson and FDR. I'm an old white guy from the whitest state in our country who remembers actually seeing "Southie's" beating on school buses with bats while little children are sitting inside. We have a racist for president and if you checked his history that should come as no surprise to anyone. The questions is, what are we going to do about it...
20
Our hideous “President” continues to confound and shock with each new day. Who is this man? Who would support him? I am beyond disgusted with his antics, attitude and aversion to truth, honor and the American way.
16
Hopefully, Trump's outrageous comments will cause the Dems to become more cohesive. In addition, he draws attention to others, such as Graham, who have forfeited all self respect and moral judgement.
Yes, Trump is a racist; that primarily drives his agenda. But, in this case, I think his disdain for women is equally at work. His experience is that women adore his money and fall in line accordingly. He requires their obedience and loyalty, and it appears that all three wives, among others, comply.
He is incapable of imagining, no less respecting, women who are not wowed by him. Ego does not permit, nor does his ossified idea of women's roles and powers.
11
Be surprised. Be shocked. We shouldn’t normalize his behavior, no matter how tiring it is. No president should tell a citizen to go back to where they came from. It is a stunning thing to hear from our president.
7
The Democrats and the Squad in particular can jump into Trump's gladiator arena of choice and rebut until they are blue in the face, but it will have zero impact on the election. Trump's misdeeds have nothing to do with the 2020 election. They are already known; they are already out there.
Democrats' mission, if they want to win back the White House, should be to unite. The divisions in their party are deep and they are setting themselves up for defeat unless they change their focus. The Democratic candidates must accept that they alone can lose the election. Leftist candidates are proffering reasons to fence sitters to re-elect Trump. Only a moderate Democrat can beat Trump. Everything else is just noise.
12
To: AOC, Ms. Omar, Ms Tlaib and Ms. Pressley:
From: A Concerned Democrat
Please conduct yourselves in a savvy, dignified manner, or you will add voters to the Republican rolls and usher in another Trump victory. Put forth solid, sensible policy about immigration as we do need control over our borders.
Voters will forget histrionics over who sounds racist; however, the same voters will remember policy proposals on important issues.
11
You are right. These women will get trump elected again. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
4
Only a "handful" of Republicans spoke out against Trump's "incendiary posts."
But there's a silent majority among them that relies on Trump to stay in power.
They mourn the decline of WASP power in politics. And Trump is their "saviour" because he has been able to capitalise on the pervasive racism in many parts of the country to stir grievances and resentment towards immigrants.
Votes from the blue-collar white workers who decry job losses, declining living standards and the erosion of their WASP culture and values are badly needed to win in 2020.
5
Trump's Dad, Fred, was the son of an immigrant father and mother (Trump's grandparents). Not a problem there as were many of us if not a generation or two/three more removed. Trump's Granddad was from Germany. We know that Germany went through tragic times due to its Nazi leadership in the 1930s and 40s. But wait: Trump's Dad Fred was arrested at a KKK riot in Queens in 1927. Trump and his Dad were taken to court in the 1970's charged with housing discrimination for not renting apartments to African Americans. Trump has a history of being a racist-- because it has been a part of the culture in which he was raised and has benefited. Let's not pretend that Trump represents America's values of diversity; he represents its ugly values of racism some of which has its origin in Europe. While the world has evolved, not Trump. The saddest part is his con of the people is to influence those he to agree with him. Well, the inept leaders and corrupt countries he referred to inaccurately stating that four congresswomen should return to them are instead representative of the countries he most admires: Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Egypt and Russia-- not democracies like the one i.e., America these four women were legitimately elected to assist in their congressional offices. Trump is illegitimate and he knows it. His insecurity is so great he acts like a big brat or bully. He lashes out for attention. He has no policy; no cabinet; poor English and no manners. Utterly Disgraceful POTUS!
13
Just as I thought - full moon Tuesday July 16, 2019! When is someone going to do something about this mentally ill creature? And where are all the good Christians who voted for this ill-mannered racist?
To remind you : "whatsoever you do to the least of the brethren, that you do unto me" Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25, 34-46.
11
He's scared to death, can't you tell?
6
Funny they don't see it.
When they shoot back at Trump with accusations of promoting the agenda of white nationalists, they're doing EXACTLY what he is doing.
7
Are we really surprised by tRump, Graham, and the other GOP minions elected or appointed? They now have shown themselves by both keeping their opining out of the spotlights that now engulf them all. What it seems to me is that they finally are saying what they believe and believe what they say.
Racism knows no boundaries as is being shown once again by the faux potus and his band of deplorables.
7
America was racist almost from the word "go". However, the original object of hatred and prejudice was the Native American or "Red Indian" (a double misnomer). Later, contempt was also directed at Asian immigrants, usually Chinese. Mexicans and other Central Americans were next ... Now most Red Indians have been eliminated or excluded from the mainstream, and people from South and Central America are the new folk everyone loves to hate.
However, gone are the halcyon days when an American President had to have an English-sounding name, and Obama even looked a little African (although Trump has dropped the "f" from his family name).
For political purposes, it is probably helpful to sound and look like people's idea of a "typical American", but with "Latinos" at 25 percent, and "African Americans" at 12.7 percent the concept is looking shakier by the day. Most importantly for the discerning politician (I believe there are still quite a few) there are around 50% women voters out there (a startling discovery I've made, to quote Tom Paxton) who do not always fit the concept of a "typical voter.
Unfortunately, racism is probably here to stay, in many countries around the world but very much so in so-called Anglo-Saxon nations. Trump is just playing a well-worn card and will undoubtedly score a lot of points with other racists among his flock.
6
I’m an old white guy concerned about the fissures in our party.
Tonight I heard these words:
“You know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some understanding here today
Don’t punish me with brutality
C’mon talk to me so we can see
What’s going on.”
- Marvin Gaye almost 50 years ago
Two generations. Same hope.
There’s got to be a way to work together and turn this around.
8
The president's racist tweets and rants fail to surprise or shock at this point. Another day another insult. Outrage meters are increasingly exhausted. But the seemingly widespread Republican indifference to Mr. Trump's divisive, deeply hurtful rhetoric never ceases to be a bone chilling check on the nation's current reality. The president of the United States is verbally endorsing White Nationalism. And his party's craven silence suggests they approve.
15
These 4 congresswoman are in office because they won the popular vote.
Unlike Donald Trump.
23
We knew he was spoiling for an attack on these Congress members as soon as they had won the midterms over him. Their historic-making entrance into Congress scorched him to the core because -- in his irascible ignorance -- they looked so different to him and he immediately brands anyone with a hijab or turban or wig a 'terrorist'.
He only knows how to loudly embrace the superficial fights that inflame his base -- kneeling at anthems, disrespecting the flag, birther conspiracies... Do any of those really show as much contempt for the country than wantonly lying 5 times to get oneself out of serving in the army?
The ultimate love for your country would be to put down your life for it but everyone knows he is much too cowardly to do that. Trying to deflect this by falsely charging others of not loving their country enough is the height of stupendous irony. Even the word 'irony' is rolling its eyes ad infinitum.
Most disappointing of all is the silence of the Republicans. Never again will any voter believe the GOP from now on whenever any of them bleats to be 'not racist'. The sieve of the Trump administration has revealed them to be just as they are -- white nationalists, and and every one of them.
9
I think it's pretty obvious that this is all a ploy to get everyone riled up about identity politics with a twist of fear mongering about immigration and socialism.
Trump will gladly play the villain on race, because he knows he can play the victim for his base.
Meanwhile, people are NOT talking about these things that make Trump look much worse:
his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein;
his rape of E. Jean Carroll;
his failed effort this weekend to mass deport using ICE brute squads;
Mueller's approaching testimony on TV;
Trump's second campaign where he is again accepting outside help from adversaries like Russia;
the ballooning deficit, out-of-control spending, and skyrocketing national debt;
the grilling of Steele by the DOJ and how it killed Trump's narrative that his Dossier and the FBI were part of a coup;
Trump's failing Trade War;
Trump's failure to rein in NK and Iran;
and any number of other failures, staff exits or arrests, lies, and garbage policy and behavior.
17
How about we vote out this malign wanna-be dictator and as many as possible of the do-nothing, say-nothing Republicans who are his enablers?
November 3, 2020 cannot come soon enough so that we can end this nasty "reality tv presidency" for good.
Vote a straight Democratic ticket, federal, state and local.
Vote as if our democracy depends on it, BECAUSE IT DOES.
15
@Joe From Boston
Vote blue no matter who! That's all you need to know. Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress is what's needed right now in our nation's history.
2
Yawn! Pointless discussion and rhetoric!! No one is going anywhere?
Btw, Why is the Gold price going up? Everyone worried that US will get into a war and markets looking for safe havens?
1
Nancy Pelosi started out the year as the face of the Democrat party.
It only took one Trump tweet to force Democrats to rally behind AOC, Omar, and Tlaib, and put them front and center for all of the public to see on national TV.
Full exposure of their extremism.
Trump is a political genius.
7
In this exchange, at least, there is only one person who is sounding extreme, and that’s DJT. If anything, he legitimized their messages as many in the country rally around them in reaction to his racism. I’m no fan of the four of them, but Donald did a good job of reminding me why I would spend with them over him.
6
As usual, The Donald is wrong.
Democrats and so-called ‘progressives’ don’t hate this nation.
They just love running it down.
2
@EGD Trump pretty much hates everyone, and everything, except himself. Must be fun, attempting to keep him under 'control'.
I'd like to say I was surprised but I'm not. The number of Republicans who remain silent over trump's tweets and those with lame excuses of support. Anyone who does not take issue with trump's profane remarks about race and women is just as bad. These people are enablers and complicit in dividing the nation just to win elections.
Until we all come together as a people, we'll never be a nation.
Trump is proving he is a loser. Are you also one?
3
The problem, my fellow Americans, is that there are too many of us who share Trump's ugly prejudices. That's how he got elected in the first place and that's why he told reporters that many Americans believe as he does. He's right. This is the first time in the history of our republic that a sitting president openly expressed such blatant racism. He knows he has support. Unless Democrats and the handful of Republicans who still have a shred if decency turn out in unprecedented numbers to vote against Trump, he will be reelected by the racists among us.
8
Wait a few weeks! AOC and her Squad of comrades will make another round of anti American or antisemitic comments.
Trump's not worried because time is on his side. AOC will get a weeks worth of sound bites out of this then as the limelight fades will be forced to make more wild an inane comments to keep the press coverage on them.
8
Mr. President, if you are not happy with the opinions of duly elected representatives of four states of our union, YOU CAN LEAVE.
10
My wife and daughter are from Kazakhstan. They say Russia since it's easier to remember, but even so some student said to my daughter a few years back that she should be,"deported back to Russia." The other day someone gave my wife a hard time about her accent. I actually used to think people really didn't mean it when they said these things, like some of them were just in bad taste. When I was between 10 and 15, I would laugh at people who said racist jokes. I thought they were just kidding or a little too angry at their parents. Maybe some of them were just that. Then I met with an estranged uncle who turned out to be a Christian fundamentalist/supporter of David Duke, not to mention an employee of the US defense department. I have since come to believe that racism is some kind of insidius fungus attacking fragile intellects, a living idea that coats one's belief systems so badly that every piece of your mind needs power washing to get rid of it.
14
I'm very proud of the 4 women Democratic Representatives who coducted themselves with dignity before the press today. They made their case about Caligula's life-long racism and how bad that is for America. And they did it convincingly and without going over the top, despite what has most certainly been a very emotional experience for all four of them.
My esteem for these 4 women of color was already pretty high. But after seeing them today, working together to expose the racism among Caligula and his corrupt Republican supporters, I hold all 4 in the very highest regard!
13
How the author of these tweets, Daniel Scavino Jr has continued to escape mention is baffling.
1
I am a proud American, born and raised. I couldn't care less about Israel. I don't live there, I've never visited, I don't plan on visiting, I don't know anyone who lives there, I don't have ancestors from there. I care about America. I do not care about Israel. Why does America have an obligation of such fidelity towards that country? Why does Trump continue this American acquiescence to Israel? Why does Trump insist that disagreement with Israel is on par with Antisemitism? As an American Christian, does that mean I have to agree with the policies and leaders of a rogue, right-wing government that has usurped the power of one specific Middle Eastern country I have no ties to? As an American Christian I am much more concerned about fellow citizens and immigrants here in America. I care more about the fellow citizen from The Bronx, New York who was elected in 2018 as the United States Representative for New York's 14th congressional district. I care more about the human beings currently locked in cages inside of detention centers in Texas. I care more about the black Muslim immigrant, who through trials and tribulations, somehow made it to America, became a citizen, and became a duly elected public official - the U.S. Representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district. I care about America.
15
It looks like the four women were right to opposed the $4.6 billion aid package for the border because it does not specify how the money is to be used, given that Trump now says it's not enough money to keep the border open to refugees. I suppose the next thing is that he'll try to use it for his ridiculous wall.
3
Pres Trump says if you are not happy here, leave, and I would love to live in Australia or NZ! But I can’t escape paying US taxes as a US citizen. Pls ask Pres Trump to pass one of his many executive orders to change that, and I will happily leave, bye bye...
6
It is not quite as easy as you think to move to other countries. Some have financial and language requirements in order to be admitted on top of a cap on immigration.
As for the tax situation you can denounce your citizenship and pay an exit tax to the US Treasury to eliminate future tax obligations.
1
Creating controversies through filthy remarks and spreading hate and racial prejudices has become a standard practice for Trump whenever he needs to mobilise and recharge his raw political base to face the elections. The racist remarks against the Congress women just reflect this mentality.
5
I do not trust the "squad" as their prior numerous radical statements eliminate them from any consideration on my part. Nothing they say will change my mind as well as many others. They didn't help themselves with their statements today. They probably now have more people against them. Granted the NYT readers will support them along with other libs but that is not a majority. Only God knows what they will say in the future but it will probably make things worse for themselves. They are in no way helping the dem candidates.
8
My father volunteered to fight in WW 2, he told me very little of what he did in the pacific. He was also paid by the US government to kill people that followed leaders with a political goal like trump has.
I now have some small idea of how my dad thought of Hirohito.
2
There are days when I cannot believe this is America. Days like today when I am roused from numbness and feel utter revulsion at this human stain that leads our nation. Consistent with every lie he tells, “make America great again” actually means burn down the house. I tell myself that our democracy will survive this administration. And there are days when I believe it. Not today though.
5
I am amazed. Not by Trump - anyone who thought he was anything other than racist after he began advocating for a ‘Muslim ban’ is deluding themselves.
I am amazed that people are not rallying outside of congress demanding he be impeached. I am amazed that any member of our government could not be in favor of impeachment after this.
I am amazed that credible news agencies are encouraging a debate over whether or not his tweets were racist - there isn’t one. Telling brown people to go back to ‘their own countries’ is profoundly racist.
To those who say “not everyone who voted for trump is racist”, please remember the words of Dr. King. "For evil to succeed, all it needs is for good men to do nothing.”
7
Isn’t MAGA one big complaint against the America they don’t like? Complaining against the America one doesn’t like is what makes America great!
6
Here are the facts: I wish they would leave. And never return.
5
Wake up Democrats!! Don't you realize that Trump has set a trap for the Democratic Party. He does not care what he says, the more ugly the better, just so he continues to make the face of the Democratic Party this 4 member squad group! Folks, take a look at this group, Pelosi is wholly correct, these 4 should not be the face of the DNC, it will hurt everybody running.
5
I grew up in Orange County, then home of Nixon and the John Birch Society. The Trump/GOP attacks take me back in time, when non-white “others” were openly denigrated, any person advocating government programs like Medicare or environmental protection were vilified as America-haters and communists, and people rallied to Nixon’s racist “southern strategy”.
I will take the passionate commitment to a better America of the four young Congresswomen under siege from the Right over the GOP’s resort to its ugly antecedents any day. Hate to tell you, Trump supporters and apologists: they are the future.
6
@Texas Duck, As a liberal Dem, I agree with you. I think that AOC is playing a dangerous game to promote only herself.
4
Trump pursues only one thing: power. This pursuit of power comes with the cost of shattering the social fabric of this country and the destruction of American democracy. He feels no remorse or shame. So shaming him does not work. The enemies of this land could not have wished for more.
4
I am beginning to suspect Trump is very confident in a 2020 win. I am also inclined to agree.
I think this is as much about 2024. What then?
I also think that what passes for progressive(ism?) has led to a deep infiltration of corporate rule making, finance driven decision making, and pervasive newspeak noise-making to sustain positions, in lieu of promoting modern changes to our policies.
As far as I am concerned, both sides are guilty of criminal negligence. I wish I were able to opt out entirely. This sentiment, coming from well intention-ed people, should be the key signal to those responsible that they have failed spectacularly.
Trump's is an excellent tactician. He has manipulated the opposition by diverting their attention to defending their least productive positions, knowing fully this is a path to success for him. They fall for it every single time.
Meanwhile, the beat goes on. More animal extinctions, more lone gunman, more leveraging the future to keep the inflated present afloat, more despair for those who remain outside this circus of stupidity.
You know us, we are the ones who don't want to hold office, or possess conspicuous social standing, or even great wealth, who think influence might just be poison, not currency; but who may want to embrace the privilege we were born into, of having the best opportunity on Earth to be our best selves.
3
More and more Republican leaders sit back and say nothing while this man continues to wreak havoc. It would appear that as long as they retain their individual seats, elected Republicans are okay with twisty words, deceit and lies. Where are your morals?
3
If there is anything that this presidency has damaged, I would say that he singlehandedly destroyed the power that language used to possess to shape, to wield, to invigorate and inspire. Now words fall dead upon the screen of consciousness like insignificant bugs corkscrewing against an electrical trap. An anti-grammar impresario, Trump dances sense and meaning and structure and beauty right over the cliff's edge and into the boiling sea. As Voltaire once wrote, " . . .when fanaticism has once gangrened a brain, the malady is incurable." We are living under a dictatorship, which is the enemy of beauty and poetry, and "the horror of ugliness advances day by day at an ever-increasing pace" (Reinaldo Arenas). How to fan away these fugitive emissions that seep unceasingly from The White House? I wish like that I could laugh it all away like an imperturbable joker, but all this business has left me feeling very much the loose card these days. We are lucky to have these four Democratic congresswomen; and they are lucky in that they have the platform upon which to wage a war of conscience. But what of the rest of us? Must we rock back on our heels and brace ourselves for the blast? What more can we do besides casting votes and calling our representatives?
4
The blatantly open racism on display is well past the warning stage, it is clear that our republic is on the slippery slope away from our ideas and towards the rule of the bully. Every tweet from the President, every silence from his Party, every moment this continues signals to the rest of the world that we no longer are "the leaders of the free world". We aren't even in the realm of realpolitik any more, just shameful, dangerous farce overlying fundamental dangers to our way of life.
5
GOP Senators, what next? How far down this slippery slope do you plan on going? You're supporting Trump's base to keep your cushy jobs. You're beholden to Trump's base, but they are NOT the majority voice of the American people. And we vote!
3
Trump couldn't help himself. He went for the grab.
4
Each of these women individually have more intelligence, presence, understanding of human nature, Constitutional law, temperament of the nation, rights and aspirations of every citizen of the USA, than Donald Trump's administration and supporters have -- combined.
US House Representatives Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, are the embodiment of everything that is and always has been the joy, pride, and world envy of this multiracial, polyglot, religious and culturally wealthy nation of old and new immigrants. They are a high-profile reminder that 'one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all," worked, works, and will work if we do our part to see it does: vote for who actually understand that We The People ARE the United States of America.
6
Isn't all this a staged event and media distraction/diversion
designed to keep attention focused away from the actual
ice deportation stories? The swing voter who is not fond
of the rhetorical flourishes of the four congresswomen
is likely to be far more interested in reading about this
than in knowing about what ice has been up in their name this week.
So if you give them something to chew on, and you add to it
the expected condemnation by the usual media elites,
you get a perfect combination for making sure
that they don't inquire or find out about what ice is
doing in their name.
At the same time, you get to gauge how much sentiment there is for deviation from the party line in the pushback from
any offended congess people. So far, the Senate count is not
terribly impressive...naturally. And you also allow for
the "respectable" attacks to be tried out, say the silly spittle from
graham about (horrors!) communists (!). When
was the last time that word actually got used to smear
someone?
All in all, just another day in the media reality fantasy world that
has so distorted how the country can actually think critically
about where it is going. By now, isn't it clear that the country
is fundamentally handicapped in understanding where it is
headed? Can't anyone manage to figure out how to focus attention upon that rather than get caught up in these manipulation campaigns?
Or is this just another symptom of our derangement
and distraction epidemic?
4
Trump's statements are a masterstroke in political theater and maneuvering. The original tweets are incendiary enough to whip his opponents in a frenzied mob. Epithets such as "racist" and "bigot" are so loosely leveraged against him, that these words carry virtually no weight now - even when they're deployed as sensational news headlines.
Pelosi is now backed into a corner and must come to the political defense of the Fab 4 - a group that is rightfully considered radical - as they wreak havoc over whatever semblance of order she can muster in the House.
When the dust settles, Trump walks away with his base as strong as ever, while Democrats fracture under the pressure to balk at anything and everything he says. At best, Democrats will appear to be defending a group that not only goes against the grain of mainstream norms but thoroughly espouses the benefits of socialism while gleefully deriding their own country.
No sensible person is buying that his Tweets are "racist." The sooner Democrats stop using the race card every time he utters something, the sooner they may land a political victory of sorts.
6
What I am most afraid of regarding Trump's strategy is that he might just be able to "prove" that a majority of American voters don't deserve the benefits of living in this pluralistic democracy that has achieved such great progress for the entire world in terms of improving the human condition. If this proves true, the scariest thing of all would be to realize that I, as an educated, thinking, non-theist egalitarian don't belong here anymore.
4
I was born in 1964. The Vietnam War was something that happened before I was mature enough to comprehend it. However, one message always stood out in my mind from that period: “America, love it or leave it.”
I didn’t fully understand the impact of that message until now and realize how self-defeating it is. It is precisely because people love America that they speak out and present their point of view, often and throughout history, at great peril to themselves.
During the Vietnam War there were voices of descent that tried to warn our nation about the perilous path it was undertaking. Often, those voices were credited to “communists” and haters of America. Yet today we know with certainty that their voices often represented reason and great love for our nation.
So I am saddened that history must repeat itself. That there is a vocal crowd out there that thinks “America, love it or leave it” is a smart message. America, love it and speak your mind. America, love it and listen. America, love it and fight to make sure all voices are always heard.
5
The President of the United States channels Lester Maddox, George Wallace and "Bull" Connor circa 1964.
Except it's 2019. The Civil Rights Act has been the law for decades. We've had a brilliant, accomplished African American President, elected by a majority of the popular vote and a Electoral College landslide - not by the skin of his teeth, with a strong assist from the GRU, after paying hush money to 'porn stars' and nude models.
There's no point in engaging in repartee with this repugnant excuse for a human being. If you wrestle with a pig, you both end up covered in mud.
Just get out and vote Trump out office; along with the rest of his spineless enablers in the Gruesome Old Party. And then let's get to work undoing the damage he has done.
5
A divided house falls....he’s breaching the walls using color as a battering ram and sowing discord to create disunity...god almighty, it’s basic abc divisional politics , distract and disrupt, a tactic as old as the hills ....seriously Democrats,are you that stupid that you take the bait every time?
Focus,focus,focus...Health Care, Corporate Plundering, Epstein,Mueller....he’s starting a fire to focus your attention from these...stop being so naive and reactionary for Gods sake...we KNOW what and who he is for years ,STOP feeding his ego and his desperate need for attention....
4
Republican President Trump. The gutter is their standard. All one needs to do is remember why, and keep in mind what urgent work is not being done. His supporters can explain to their grandchildren why they don't care at all about their fates.
4
Two years ago, the Guardian published an article about Trump's grandfather - that there's documentation to show he was thrown out of Germany ... so, much as we'd like, Trump can't go back to where he came from, his family's not welcome.
Also, this administration is basically lawless.
3
@RAB — Trump’s grandfather was an ‘unaccompanied minor’ who fled to the U.S. to avoid the draft in Germany. Dodging military service by any available means has been a Trump family tradition for over 100 years.
4
I do not agree with AOC on most things but I think she said it best today and I am paraphrasing “Weak minds avoid debating policy and resort to personal attacks instead.”
Frankly, the President really scared me today with his ranting. He truly seemed unbalanced.
Please, objectively, do not tell me that if you see a person on the street performing like he did today, you would not cross to the other side of the street to get away. I would very definitively do.
Any Fortune 500 company would have fired him already. Unfortunately we still have another 1.5 years to go....
10
Just looking at things we have among other things:
a nation's media united under BLM (although an overwhelming supermajority of crime against...anyway);
4 congresspeople united under "color" as though this provides some sort of gravamen advantage compared to other people (I have transparent layers of skin by the way so have a different understanding);
a leading Democrat candidate who attacks another candidates failure to embrace mandatory busing many years ago - yet this candidate chose to attend a segregated college and pledge a segregated sorority (I assume the candidate was grateful to be able to choose to segregate);
a member of the "squad" who wrote for Louis Farrakhan's newspaper (who continues to say worse than David Duke but shares the podium with US Presidents because the US applies lower standards/expectations of non-European descent;
In short, I don't trust the "squad" and their ilk to care about any interests other than their own.
5
As CNN's John Blake, pointed out, the progressives really do belong to a different country from the one Trump belongs to. There are two Americas, and the America of white supremacists is larger and stronger than any of us suspected. Trump wants progressives to leave if they don't like it here, so perhaps instead of repeating the mistake of the Civil War, we should agree to an amicable divorce. The progressive, blue states of the West Coast and Northeast could simply leave the white supremacist America behind and join Canada.
3
Trump has spoken badly of the USA extremely often.
Trump in an interview in which he was reminded that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “a killer.” Trump replied, “There are a lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country’s so innocent?”
Then later on another day he said of his hero Putin:
. “He’s running his country, and at least he’s a leader, unlike what we have in this country.” Told that Putin has been credibly thought to order the murder of journalists, Trump said of the USA, “Well, I think our country does plenty of killing also.”
Another time: “When the world looks at how bad the United States is, and then we go and talk about civil liberties, I don’t think we’re a very good messenger"
Apart from the absurdity of Mr Roundup the Others Man mentioning civil liberties at all, he is slandering America again.
America is grounded in immigration and multicultural tolerance.
If Donald dislikes the way America actually is, he is free to move to Slovenia.
5
By this logic anyone who ever asked for equality in the past(or will in future) hated/s their country. Surely someone somewhere in USA can come up with reasonable response. Saying "Make America White" is only playing into their hands.
3
Democrats again play the race card. Trump is attacking their patriotism, not their color. Now the whole debate forces Speaker Pelosi to defend four of her caucus when just days ago she attacked them as being out of the mainstream. This now makes Democrat leadership appear just as far to the left. The more Democrats defend the four, the more they all look like the four. This all helps Trump because it suggests Democrat lack of patriotism. Democrats again took the bait.
3
Reality Check the whole debate is a he said she said show. Mean while important issues being smoked by this nothing getting done. Same old record deficent spending with zero accountabilty. Made in usa just memory now only thing we make is debt.
1
Think what you want of them, but the "Squad" won their seats the "old fashioned way": with the majority of the votes. Thats something our President, who lost the popular vote, can't say.
The GOP knows a lot of their power comes from mechanisms like the Electoral College and Gerrymandering that help make them a "minority majority" party. The Squad scares them to death, because they're the future of America.
Write your senator or representative and demand they weigh in on this issue. Don't let them hide.
Congress should press for a joint resolution condemning the President for this racist tirade.
7
I have never seen such a horrific display of ill will and demagoguery in my life by a President. I am frightened for my country, very frightened, that this invitation by our leader, to mock others who criticize the administration with the accusation of hating our country, allows others to deepen the divide and ostracize anyone who does not stand at attention and pledge loyalty to Trump. That is how a dictator behaves.
5
Similar to the way Richard Nixon equated himself with the "Presidency", donald trump equates disagreeing with him as hating America. In his mind, donald trump represents America. Sadly, and frighteningly, his 40% base don't disagree with him. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the danger of this attitude to our democracy.
4
Democrats fell right into Trump's trap, unfortunately. They should have ignored him. The extremists are once again the face of the Democratic party. Trump is now more likely to win the electoral votes of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Please Democrats, stop playing Trump's game and start playing your own. Stay on message. Stick to your agenda. Talk about health care -- it worked in the midterms. Ignore Trump!
2
Is Queens a country? AOC is from Queens and so is little hands Donald. Maybe he should take his own advice. Today’s latest poll has him LOSING to FOUR democratic candidates. That’s what he’s trying to block out.
5
He will win just as he did in 2016 when he was losing in the polls. The vast majority of the readers of this paper are out of the loop with the common man who observe “the squad” and realize they want no part of it.
1
Why are you not condemning Trump’s anti-American rant for what it is - an affront to free speech. He is pushing a Soviet era agenda that allows no position except that of the supreme leader. Play his game only better. Otherwise he wins every time.
6
Why are there two Marines there in view? It reminds me of General Alexander Haig saying; "I'm in control here" right after Reagan was shot.
Right on! We are proud of these four and disgraced by this president.
8
Keep pushing Congresswomen. Tell it like it is. Don’t hold back, not against this guy.
6
Why don't you report the approval rating that these congresswomen have : 9 % for Omar and 20 % for AOC ?
That shows how much support they have in the country (which they actually do hate) and how this whole episode is going to backfire on the democrats.
8
People are outraged over something the GOP purposely wanted to put out there. The distraction from this administration is stellar and people keep falling for it everytime while the media eats it up. I'm so tried.
1
GOP is beholden to #45 b/c he has delivered the Supreme Court to them by installing Gorsuch and Kanaugh. SCOTUS Justice Ginsburg is 86 and likely to retire in the next few years. So, if #45 scores a 2nd term, he might be able to appoint a 3rd conservative to the Supreme Court. #45 would like nothing better than to replace a Clinton appointee.
And then there is this: many Americans, especially white women, have been comparing Trump to god. So, the answer to your question is a rhetorical question "why would the GOP and white women turn on their god?"
Meanwhile, the Senate's gatekeeper is at his most powerful ever and it is power b/4 party; party b/4 country; and then of course, the stock market. And that's why the freshman class shouldn't agitate for an impeachment, you have little chance of getting it pass the gatekeeper.
1
At his inauguration, Trump talked about "American carnage". Sure sounded like he was unhappy with his country. Why didn't he leave?
9
Would love to get an updated op-ed from the young Latino man who felt he needed to stick with the GOP even though he was a first generation immigrant. How is he feeling about his chosen associates today knowing that the leaders and supporters of his party don't think he should be allowed to serve in government or voice his opinions or critiques because of his family's country of origin?
3
Trump happens to be the son of an immigrant. He's just as "un-American" as the people he criticizes. And if he loves America so much why is he steering us all toward financial and political disaster?
4
I think this is the best description I've heard of Trump's White House: "callous, chaotic and corrupt." The GOP bears responsibility for enabling him and turning away to save their own skin.
5
The 2020 election is going to come down to these things, and I am sure a few others which fit the theme.
Decency vs indecency.
Compassion vs in humanity.
Reality vs conspiracy theory.
Truth vs lies.
Greed vs Civic responsibility.
Corruption vs. justice.
Dignity vs degradation.
Ethics vs immorality.
I am still betting on the best of our nation coming out on top, but we have to unite behind whomever the candidate is, and we have to vote.
Staying home is a vote for Trump and his ilk, like Graham, McConnell, Jordan, his cabinet, and his unqualified and clueless kids.
5
I'm amazed how everyone has taken the bait! Let's all forget about Epstein and criminal actions by Trump that I believe are there to be discovered with real investigative reporting.
2
As a 5th-generation U.S.-born citizen (European-American/white), I would like to find out exactly where my ancestors came from, to see if it is possible to "return to" that country. I have never been more ashamed to be an American (and yes, I lived through Watergate).
5
Keep the discussion on health care and integrity and the people win. Yelling about immigration lets Trump win.
4
The representative from Minnesota looks more like a terrorist’s daughter (especially when her utterances are taken into account) far more than she ressembles The Farmer’s Daughter. The three others are of the same ilk, collectivist and third world loving, reciters of the diversity mantra ad absurdum,
and all too eager to remake American society in their image.
President Trump, along with millions of Americans, have choked on a surfeit of their politically correct bilge and have regurgitated it in their faces.
This is not intolerance, but rather an audible and visible repugnance.
6
"The Squad" speaks for millions like me and we have their back. BTW, I am white, male, a Baby Boomer, was raised evangelical and live in the South.
Does not quite fit the narrative we hear from the experts and pundits. I am an independent voter because the Democratic Party long ago forgot who the base was and is. The Democratic Party was at its best as an unabashedly progressive party that championed those who work for wages - "working people" in the parlance of days gone by.
They were amazing, on message and firmly under Trumpov's skin. He knows he is in trouble (see the latest NBC poll) and is trying to rally his low information base.
To the Squad, I will be chipping in via Act Blue to support your campaigns. We have your back.
4
I'm done. As an Australian that works for an American company and enjoys friendship with some great American people, I've had enough, I'm switching off, tuning out. I'm sure you'll be fine without me following the latest Twitter outrage, without me getting mad here so far away at what Trump and the GOP is doing to your country and the perception of it.
I'm deleting twitter, deleting every Trump, White House, Congressman and Congresswoman account off my social media feeds and I'll try to have the discipline to not read US news with morbid curiosity...
The reason I'm doing this is because it's corrosive, it's damaging, it's dimming my hope and dampening my mood to read every morning the latest event in this grotesque circus. I'm being serious... it makes me feel angry, sad and hopeless that I can't even vote these people out. So I have to leave you to it.
I truly, sincerely hope that somehow the ship of state will right itself, and that you'll all be OK. As individuals so many of you are wonderful, but the groupthink, tribalism and zero-sum politics is destroying the brightest, most hopeful and energetic country in the world.
Good luck America, the rest of the world grieves for you.
10
Mr Trumps popularity is not based on supporters, it is based on opposers. The more buzz in the social media, the better his chances to be re-elected in 2020. He never will win additional votes from his critics but keeping his name in the media will help collecting votes from the undecided.
So I guess his strategy is to "chase a new pig through the village every day" (sorry for this German idiom. Didn't find the correct English analogy but I guess the meaning is clear).
My advice: if you want to stop him in 2020, start to ignore his twittering.
And if folks still vote for Trump in 2020 after this, then I'll know even more about America than I knew in 2016. Because it's not Trump that's the problem. He was created by the people that either support him wholeheartedly, or don't care at all. Those are the people Democrats should be connecting with every day until next year. Not holding press conferences to respond to Trump. Don't even waste your time. Because, honestly, that's what he wants you to do.
4
We are here because my paternal grandparents immigrated to this country from different parts of Portugal in the early 20th century. They met and married here. In 1920 they returned to their homeland with 3 American children under the age of 4. My father was born two years later. My American uncle returned in the early 1950s and at that time my father submitted paperwork for an immigrant visa. I was 8 years old when we arrived and became naturalized citizen in 1968.
I cringe every time I hear “speak English” or that those who don’t speak English should go back. My father made every attempt to learn English. Yet on more than one occasion I had to speak on his behalf because the people he was speaking to told him that they didn’t understand him. My 97 year old mother, with dementia, has been told to speak English by a nursing home worker. By the way this was by an American of color.
We are a family of nongeniuses due to the circumstances of our birth. Trump doesn’t want people like us here. My parents didn’t have the advantages that Trump and his ilk have had. Yet I am grateful that I am their child not his. My parents taught me that I am no better than anyone else; no matter the color of my skin; no matter my intellectual abilities; no matter what language I speak. My parents taught me that I am to treat each human being with dignity and respect. Something Trump’s genius parents failed to teach him.
9
I’ve read hundreds of comments from readers in the NYT in the past couple of days due to this most recent DT controversy. The message contained in your comment is the most heart-felt and genuine I’ve read. I commend you and your family, in the face of adversity, to call America your home. Families like yours are what give America its greatness. Thank you for sharing.
4
Folks, I'm sorry, but you know the rest of the world is watching, right? From our side of the ditch your current political landscape is one of the sorriest we've viewed anywhere in the world. The bickering, backstabbing and tempestuousness of the White House has got to a point where there is a real struggle to understand why as a nation we should continue to align ourselves with America.
Having spent a great deal of time living and traveling within the United States (kinda ironic to call it that at the moment); and with some of the greatest friends I've had the privilege to make being Americans, I struggle to reconcile in any way the mess and mayhem currently being experienced, and I think the former British Ambassador has summed up the sentiment best.
Most alarming though seems to be the total lack of policy or agenda beyond a wall. I understand political opponents are going to disagree, but in most other countries - and previous US Govt's - you will always find a compromise to implement legislation. In this instance though it's seems the first rule of the Government is to engage in a bitter and unsubstantiated slander campaign that will always offer no hope of compromise, in order to deflect focus from a stagnant government.
I hope there's an end to this soon, I really do.
5
First of all, it's possible, even likely, that Trump simply didnt do his research and had no idea where these members of congress actually came from, otherwise he wouldnt have made such an absurd mistake telling them to go back to where they came from. Second, "love it or leave it" was a common trope from the 60s to protesters on the left, without regard to any racial element. This latest remark was most likely an extension of that sentiment. He was addressing their critical policy positions which he believes are anti-American and anti-Semetic. The fact that the Squad identifies first and foremost as people of color, as is clear from the dust-up with speaker Pelosi, is what brings the racial element as the overriding interpretation of Trumps remark. If you want to see racism, you'll see it, but there are more benign explanations of his critique.
2
Trump doesn’t seem to know the difference between a president and an emperor and that the job of some elected politicians is to oppose the politicians in power. He literally wants everyone who disagrees with him to leave. He’s confused. And what’s worse, it was our sacred democratic system that made it all possible.
3
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."
Harry S. Truman
7
Every time I hear this group, especially AOC speak, they are head and shoulders above the others. They are there to represent and are doing so. They have sworn off bribes and are actually yielding amazing results for just four of them.
Can you imagine if we had 20 of them? Or maybe 50? We would actually have honest debate. We would have honest elections.
Don’t believe go actually listen to them on c-span unedited. They are extremely impressive and very brave.
50
I certainly hope the Democrats elect a hundred more like the Squad. Such extremists will destroy the Democratic Party.
3
I wasn’t around when FDR was voted president but I wonder if they said the same things about him and the Democratic Party then.
5
Four points:
1. Trump will shrug off any harm done to any of these women.
2. I like the suggestion that Trump be addressed as the "occupant" of the White House.
3. I suggest that every just start ignoring his tweets and keep the focus on legislation, investigations, and court cases to redress Trump's abuses.
4. The charge of racism has been denatured by excessive use, so it should be used with restraint and rarely.
12
In the original Gilded Age, the "Robber Baron" period between the Civil War and turn of the 20th Century, Yale professor William Graham Sumner promulgated the gospel of "Social Darwinism," celebrating how economic competition exalted the truly worthy and talented while rightfully punishing the weak and inferior: "survival of the fittest," he proclaimed, echoing his hero.
A dissenting voice, Lester Ward, demurred that "low cunning," ruthlessness, arrogance and greed might be as advantageous in the economic contest as any kind of authentic genius and virtue. We see time and again how meritocracy's underbelly - the pervasive cheating, the bribes, the exploitation of connections, the myriad ways of gaming the process to pad formal achievement capital/credentials at the expense of learning, even when not technically "cheating" -- all reveal how right Lester Ward was.
If Donald Trump, with his $ billions in real estate and other wealth, and attainment of the presidency, achieves anything in his life, it will be his putting to rest any idea that the world, and America particularly, may be called a "meritocracy." Donald Trump is living confirmation of Lester Ward, refutation of Sumner.
But a simple thought experiment adjusting "Monopoly" to what we see every day yields the same truth about "meritocracy": start players with tiny fractions or huge multiples of other players' funds, establish different rules for different wealth levels; allow wealth to purchase rule modifications.
27
The most frustrating part of this is that even when he loses, Trump wins. He doesn't care what the response is when he attacks people, as long as it keeps everyone talking about him and writing about him. It looks like he's going to take the low road all the way to November 2020, hoping that he can create enough division so that his group of core supporters is the biggest one left standing. Just once I'd like to see everyone, including the press, respond by saying we know what you're up to and we're not taking the bait. Maybe no reaction will finally get him to stop.
20
If this would have happened when I was a 6 year old, in 1968, the president would have been removed from office. People were surely just as racist, if not more, but the presidency meant something greater than the person holding the office. People were more decent then. Now that I am a father of a 6 year old, hoping for my child’s sake that congress will come around and do what would have been the obvious thing 50 years ago.
28
It should be a wake up call to Pelosi that Trump is showing respect to her. He is trying to flatter her. Why? Trump sees she has let him off the hook so far....while the squad actually want to provide oversight.
6
I had a dream the other night. It was filled with beautiful, young, vibrant intelligent women of color. They were dressed beautifully, in vibrant colors and ethnic garb.
They spoke eloquently, with measured passion and grace.In my dream, they had to.
They were living in a place, where they believed they belonged. And, indeed, they did.
I woke up and realized that those women were Ayanna Pressley, Alexander Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Talib and Ilhan Omar.
The problem with this dream,like some dreams, with lots of hard work and perseverance, they can come true.
However, reality bites...
#PincheTrump
4
This is all a side-show. The media accommodate Trump by putting it front-and-center while more important -- and more complex -- issues languish. Everyone, Trump, the media and politicians, know that Americans don't want to think, they just want entertainment.
8
I agree Donald Trump is diverting attention with these tweets, but he has chosen unwisely. Didn't he in the campaign want to make America great again? He must have thought it wasn't, just as the so-called Squad is saying there is room for improvement today. They don't hate America, but they don't like it that the US leads the western world in maternal mortality rates. There are nearly 30 countries where sixteen year olds out perform the US in math. On the UN's Happiness scale, the US doesn't crack the top ten. Oh, the US leads the world in the numbers of people incarcerated, but that is nothing to be proud of. Neither is the appalling ignorance on the definition of democratic socialism, a system of government that no Norwegian would trade for Trumpism.
13
My favorite comment made by Trump was about how NYC has essentially fallen apart as a result of Amazon not coming there.
If this doesn't show Trump is completely out of touch with reality and is therefore not mentally fit to be president, I don't know what will.
13
Trump is free to leave if he is not happy with the four Congresswomen. It cuts both ways, no?
20
How long ago did Trump's ancestors arrive in the US?
Mine came over 400 years ago. My friends' had already been here for thousands of years. It is one planet. We are all earthlings. We all belong.
15
@Rose
What if your neighbor decided he "belongs" in your home, and moves right on in?
More often I wish for days when we could be spared from seeing his face, hearing his voice or enduring reports on his latest insults. I have become weary of it all.
28
Maybe it would be better if the House would censure Trump as the Senate censured Joe McCarthy into 1954. His career and his life ended two years later.
13
Reading through some of these comments, I'm disheartened to see the false equivalencies being employed when talking about this president.
No one in their right mind can compare these four congresswomen, their opinions or statements, to anything Trump has said or done.
Trump's history speaks for itself. The mental tap dancing necessary for anyone to think that Trump's comments regarding these congresswomen are warranted or reasonable is beyond distorted.
18
A caution to those maligned by the racist Maligner in Chief: don't emulate him.
Ayanna Pressley's comments at the Netroots conference had some unfortunate echoes of the narrcissism and unenlightened self-interest as practiced by Trump.
In stating that the Democratic party did not need black Congressional representatives that were not primarily black voices (along with repeating the same comment for other racial, ethnic, and LGBT groups), Ms. Pressley inadvertently made her case for support of Republican gerrymandering. It is far more likely that more diverse districts in Congress enabled by nonpartisan districting would result in more elected representatives devoted to being the voice of their district, rather than the voice of a single constituency in that district that might be the same as their personal identity. Isn't being the voice of your district the way it should be for a member of Congress?
A permanently Republican gerrymandered Congress could guarantee the seats pf those for whom identity politics had a priority over Democratic party affiliation and the goal of a Democratic majority.
Is tacit maintenance of a gerrymandered Republican majority in exchange for a lifetime guarantee of seats in their poltically nondiverse districts what Ms. Pressley was advocating? Sounds downright Trumpian to me.
The misinterpretation is awesome. Trump doesn't know it, but Civil Disobedience, and Speaking Truth to Power, are as American as Pizza, Tacos, and Shrimp Fried Rice or Apple Pie...
10
I think Trump is trying to call attention to the radical Left, who don't even recognize him as president (much as they criticize him for not giving them proper recognition.) He feels they are disloyal -- they feel he is working for Putin. It's really just six of one, half a dozen of another.
Trump supporters are all kinds of people - but what they all believe is that Dems are interested in making everyone poor -- so they can then feed the poor, and get their grateful vote. Bringing poor country, low skill workers means more poor, and the lowering of wages, and the taking of opportunities for vulnerable Americans, and the breaking of work culture and hope, intergenerationally. The hard Left is just trying to distract us from this project, by saying white supremacy is a problem, and identity politics is what matters. But it is all a huge distraction from the big project.
Mainstream Republicans use the same poor country bodies to employ, at low wages and no benefits, and to cut them loose on public assistance when they get hurt.
3
Who are we? What is American? What does that even mean?
trump is a child of immigrants. In fact, First Nation people are true natives, not us that came along and stole, plundered, enslaved, cheated, lied, murdered.
8
@christina r garcia
btw, Native Americans immigrated from Asia.
We are ALL immigrants. Large amounts of the population of earth have been in motion since the beginning of time.
Time for a new definition.
We are all humans.
2
They vowed not to be baited.
Saying that in a press conference into which they were baited to hold.
4
Trump hates America because Americans wii not bow down to him. Republicans will. But not the majority of Americans.
17
I believe it was Pelosi who said that there’s “just four of them.”
7
@JQGALT
About 20% of Democrats are very liberal.
About 30% of Republics are very conservative.
There are 42 million Democrats and 34 million Republics in America.
Do that math, these groups are about equal in numbers.
The difference is that Democrats are generally in favor of programs and governance that benefits ALL Americans while Republics are generally in favor of programs and governance that benefits only themselves.
16
@JQGALT
About 20% of Democrats are very liberal.
About 30% of Republics are very conservative.
There are 42 million Democrats and 34 million Republics in America.
Do that math, these groups are about equal in numbers.
The difference is that Democrats are generally in favor of programs and governance that benefits ALL Americans while Republics are generally in favor of programs and governance that benefits only themselves.
1
perfect space for Biden to come into the middle, while the left and right are at each others throats.
5
@Ruth Nader Ginsberg
Biden is not in “the middle” of anything, dear Justice Ginsberg. He is an establishment Democrat, which in 2019 is basically just a pre-Reagan Republican with better table manners. The true moderate Dem is Peter Buttigieg.
2
The "why don't you leave" comment is one I see a lot in comments sections. Here in Texas, we complain a lot about the Republican state officials, in particular the Governor & Lt. Governor. E.g.: "In 2017, [Lt. governor Dan] Patrick strongly advocated for a bathroom bill that would prohibit transgender students at public schools from using any restroom other than that of their biological sex. Patrick [who presides over the State Senate] described the legislation as a 'legislative priority.' " (Wikipedia) The moderate Republican Speaker of the House gave it no priority, but "[Gov. Greg] Abbott, a Republican, ordered a 30-day special session starting in July and put on the agenda a bathroom bill that would prevent municipalities from passing anti-discrimination ordinances designed to protect transgender people." (NYTimes, 6June2017) When someone would post a comment critical of this, one response would be along the lines of "If you don't like our Texas government, leave." Mr. Trump is playing the same game as such hateful trolls. Hard to believe from the POTUS.
14
@Steve Kennedy
Hard to believe from this unfit occupant of the white house?
Unfortunately, at this point it is easy to believe.
VOTE HIM OUT.
1
Trump's comments about these congresswomen are certainly ugly, racist, and dangerous. But they also reveal more clearly than ever his hatred of the American project encapsulated in the motto e pluribus unum. Despite what he'd have us believe, it is he, and not the congresswomen, whose words show animosity toward the American project, the ideal of forming a single coherent national community out of every kind of person. Hopefully he will take his own advice and leave us.
15
In addition to being racist his arguments are childish, the kind of responses encountered in kindergarten.When he pulls us out of international agreements just to spite Obama the danger is not just to our national ideals but also to our national safety and security.
18
Your statement, “No president in modern times has made appeals to the resentments of white Americans…” is not correct.
There is nothing racist about what President Trump tweeted. I, for one, who is not white support President’s stand 100%.
This is a country where a welcome mat is rolled out to those who want to embrace the American Dream and Ideals legally. Those who buck what the country stands for every which way possible shall use that mat to walk the other way. Period.
Nothing racist about that.
BTW, President Trump has been very gentle about expressing his frustrations about the Squad.
15
Absolutely LOVE the Fab-4!!! What poise, what delivery, what resolve, and what backbones. As Elisabeth Gilbert wrote, "Put your backbone where your wishbone is" and they did.
I am SO impressed with these women!!
19
If the occupant in our White House is so unhappy here ( and he certainly seems to be, picking fights every chance he gets and endlessly complaining) he should leave. Not them - him.
21
This is a very sad day for all Americans. Trump’s comments inflame those with bigot tendencies and is disgusting behaviour for the President of the USA.
However, we are being divided by our leaders in BOTH parties. We have diverse needs across the country, so all politicians must work as a team, not hurl criticism and insults at each other. That would be a positive example for the American people.
We need leaders who will promote unity. The position of President is extremely influential of course. So why doesn’t 45 lead by example and get people to collaborate instead of slinging insults?
He wont, so stop giving him the headlines. That might persuade him to grow up and start behaving like a leader.
4
Sexual or workplace harassment and bullying of various types does take unfortunately place all the time. Trump has managed to take this to an unprecedented level by "harassing and bullying" perhaps half of US Citizenry. Surely there would a law mandating punishment for such a massive crime. And even if being born in the USA, being US Citizens (as much as Trump is) and duly elected to Congress (by the same laws as this POTUS), how come none of the four Congresswomen have asked Trump to go back to Germany or wherever his ancestors came from ?
7
It's hilarious that he didn't even give names; they just immediately assumed who he was talking about, because they fit the bill LOL Trump plays the left so effortlessly.
7
I think the world and this country would be a better place id we spent less debating this president's last tweet.
How about concentrating more on what we should do and less on what he said?
Maybe we don't have the combined wit.
7
The squad wanted get get attention, they didn't care about greater good of the party at the critical time . They wanted to make it about themselves. Now they have attention and they deserve every bit of the Presidents word lol
9
DJT spent a whole day ranting about is unhappiness living in our country and abiding by our Constitution and laws. Given his extraordinary level of rage and madness on full display, perhaps he would be happier if he left.
21
The press is inevitably focused on the demented ramblings of our president and he loves it. Doesn’t
Anyone in the media realize that in dealing with this man they “should speak softly and carry a big stick.”
What super showman dotes on is attention of any kind.
Maybe the press should cover more of the REAL news and less of Trump. After all he has never been a
the country’s leader but rather a petty big mouth gossip.
13
Please stop taking the bait. You’re treating this administration in a way which only benefits them. You’re being provoked and you’re responding with further provocation. You’re both adding to the “trump spectacle” and amplifying the fray of the very party your readers associate you with. Please stop acting so surprised. It’s been years since he was elected, and you’re still incredulous. Please resume substantial reporting!
17
The Republican Party doesn't feel that the President's words matter.
8
I am not surprised at anything he says or does. He is a bully and has no empathy. I feel bad for him. He doesn’t realize that what he does hurts people. Sad.
6
@Ron kubiak
Of course he realizes that what he does hurts people. That's the point.
4
Protest TWITTER. Get off the platform. We the people need to shut it down!!! They won’t do it. Trump would lose is bully pulpit
16
Politics has become another TV version of professional wrestling complete with phony feuds dominating the "action."
News has become the drunk sitting at the bar saying to the guy next to him, "Did you hear what that guy said about you? You gonna take that?"
Can't wait for the dilettantes and those suffering from political neotany to get bored, as they inevitably will, and move on to another fad.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
3
The federal government already proved that Trump was a racist some 50 years ago when he was shown to have discriminated against renting his apartments to Black people. Leopard doesn’t change his spots, either
18
The Squad needs to cool their heels and recede into the background so that centrist Democrats may entice a fair portion of 2016 Trump voters back into the Democratic fold. As things currently stand, the Democratic left flank is playing right into the hands of Donald Trump, almost ensuring his reelection. The squad will go down in history in the same vein as Ralph Nader in 2000 and Jill Stein did in 2016: as electoral spoilers whose own outsized egos served only to further erode the political power of the American middle class. I am nauseated by AOC and company. Makes me hope that at some future date the Congress will raise the age limit for serving in Congress.
14
I don’t know how so many people can be so naive. There is one — one — article, by NBC, that nailed this.
This is all intentional. Pelosi was distancing the party from the deeply unpopular Squad. With a few tweets, Trump undistanced it, goading the entire party into aligning itself with the Squad.
The more the Squad is associated with the Democratic Party, the more unelectable the 2020 Democratic nominee.
I think it’s likely that the nominee’s viewpoints by themselves will make them unelectable, but he likely is aware your “average American” has no interest in things like policy debates.
17
@John
Total nonsense. See you at the polls. The only way people like him can win is from propaganda and lies. You may not like it but the social aspect of what these woman support is very popular.
Ending the corruption, education, medical for all, strong wages and climate response. These are all important to a large majority of Americans.
2
I cannot blame them for responding. But I have seen no appreciation of how truly destructive of our liberal democracy that the politics of rage and resentment happens to be. Our government has no power if everyone does not give it their consent. Disagreement is fine but animosity and mistrust can destroy it. We must not think that winning elections is sufficient to achieve what we might want if a huge proportion of our citizens refuse to agree with what we aspire to have.
Trump is not building anything that will last because he’s thinking that his ability to be re-elected is all that matters. ‘The squad’ is defying all who disagree with how they seek to achieve their goals but they need those skeptics to accomplish what they seek.
1
Trump is being more open and possibly more strategic by using tools that are natural to him: his own innate desire to denigrate those who are not white, are not men, and who SOMEHOW got elected to congress. I think we should pay attention to the fact that his first or second tweet stated that he was sure that Nancy Pelosi would be happy to work out travel arrangements, playing into the contentious relationship between Pelosi and the 4 freshmen congresswomen.
It's clear he wanted to see what Pelosi would do. And as we might expect, she has come to their aid by actually creating an official resolution against the sentiment Trump is expressing.
But because he mentions Pelosi, it is probable that he chose to exploit the rift between her and the four women. And it is vital that we continue to see that these women are at risk for simply speaking what they think. It's the women that Trump is endangering. And this is what makes what Trump is saying truly frightening.
3
Trump, and apparently most of the Republicans don't seem to understand that being American is an idea; it's not tied to any one nationality or race. Trump's words and actions the past two years mark him as being perhaps the most unamerican president we have ever had. I actually disagree with most of the policies supported by the four women but I think part of being American is to listen to other voices and in the end come up with something better than any one voice has to offer. We especially need to listen to those who are new to this country. They are going to see things that those of us whose families have been here for hundreds of years might not see
12
I'm in my 85th year, and I'm fearful that my end-days may see the "good" people of this country outnumbered by the "bad." In reading many of the pro-Trump comments here, and listening to many others on air, I'm severely depressed by what seems to me a possible future of unmitigated disaster. 2020 will probably be the last time I will be able to cast a vote in a presidential election, but I'm not feeling sanguine about it, no matter who will be running on the Democratic ticket. I have never felt so without hope before.
22
@Alan Levitan:
I share both your sentiments and deep concerns.
If history has shown us anything, it's that eventually all republics eventually and inevitably fall.
As is rapidly becoming apparent, our once stellar nation is rapidly sinking into the trajectory of collapse . . .
When a deeply divided citizenry is combined with an inane demigod as a leader, the national consciousness becomes fevered and devoid of rationality, and what was once solidarity degenerates into fatal divisiveness, the unwittingly self-imposed coup de grâce follows.
The consequent fallout is ugly, tragic, and humanity's loss.
Barring a sudden influx of maturity on all sides (good luck with that) we too shall follow ancient Rome into the history books.
As the ersatz Buffon-in-Chief is fond of saying,
"Sad. Bigly sad."
Indeed.
4
The vast majority of Americans can trace ancestry to a foreign country. The Democratic leadership is not doing enough to remind people of this. Nor are they making fitness for office the issue on which the 2020 election will be decided. These leaders are failing.
8
I find it fascinating that Trump went after the squad in the same week that Pelosi came down on them, as well (Maureen Dowd’s interview with Pelosi was a scorcher - AOC and the others looked petulant, at best.) Trump may have thought he was hopping on the “divide the dems” bandwagon - but it just made him look far less eloquent and intelligent than Pelosi in his critique.
4
I am glad to see Donald Trump has finally realized our government is broken - he broke it, and we need America Democrats to come back and work to restore Democracy.
I think thats what he said, calling on three women born citizens, to aid their own home country?
9
To hear President Trump denounce immigrants, you might think his family has deep roots in this country going back many generations. In fact, his grandfather was an immigrant from Germany. Trump lied about his origin, claiming his grandfather was Scandinavian. In any event, his roots go only one generation deeper than the people he denounces.
Trump has also shown contempt for the basic principals that underlie our democracy - freedom of expression, respect for all Americans, the ability to discuss disagreement without demonizing those we disagree with. He has threatened to go around the Supreme Court and has used executive privilege to take actions that should require Congressional approval, in particular the wall that Congress has refused to fund.
Who here is the real unAmerican?
8
Let’s not forget that Trump is the guy who said avoiding STDs was his Vietnam.
One could argue that no one has ever shown more contempt for the flag and those who served than Trump.
12
Nobody has ever come out on top brawling with Trump on this level - he is a street fighter without any boundaries. Best strategy would have been not to let it get to this level. Too late now.
5
Apparently Trump is now America. If you don't agree with him, then he thinks you should leave. A sad state of affairs. Does anyone in the Republican party feel like standing up for the ideals on which this nation was founded?
8
It's a trap.
This is Trump goading the Democrats toward (or at least to talk about) impeachment. With the current GOP, Trump cannot be convicted, but even talk of impeachment will serve to bolster Trump's support.
2
Why should it matter what ethnic background you have? Pro Tip: nobody gets to choose that. What matters is that a person is a citizen of this country. Nothing more.
Congresspeople are supposed to represent their constituents. If what’s being said isn’t reflective of that role, then are we to assume that these people are speaking as ‘famous people’ or are they merely using their roles to express their own viewpoints?
Seems to me that both sides got it wrong.
It will be a lot easier if people would stop taking Trump seriously. Bad press is just as good. Don’t enable his marketing engine by falling for the clickbait rhetoric.
3
A Congressman from Kentucky spoke in favor of the recent Trump tweets which have raised so much controversy. He claimed that his constituents thoroughly supported Trumps comments on the controversial Congress women. People from Kentucky have more influence as to who will be our president in 2021 than do the people of New York or California. New York, California and the New England states have more diverse populations then Kentucky and their vote per person counts less than the vote of those in Kentucky. They think, like Trump, that white people are to be preferred over those of color
5
But if picking the battlefield for 2020, he’s anticipating that his fomenting will result in more groundswell, but this is not overwhelmingly proven in the available data. So either GOP math is fuzzy or their betting on a dictatorship intending to bully something into existence. So the squads’ playing it safe is just antithetical.
1
We have switched from Republican to Democrat. Neither party appeals. But the president is too much.
Our choice is Sen. Bennet. Michael Farrand Bennet of Colorado. We feel he’s the only candidate that brings what’s needed in his person. He’s everything Mr. Trump is not.
I confronted President Clinton. He listened to my words, every one, and he acted on his last day. I offered to help him. He heard that.
We cannot help this president. I’ve been asked three times to do as I did with Mr. Clinton. I do not see Mr. Trump listening to my words. Not to any of them.
Both presidents lied. But this president never stops lying. It’s his pathology. He is incapable of hearing what matters. He’s beyond denial. Certain dictators get to the point where there is nothing we can do. We are there and past with this president.
We are there with Mr. Trump. We must ask our elected leaders to start the process, the impeachment process.
That inquiry will leave no doubt. The party we left may come to its senses.
Let’s hope.
9
Impeachment. The Time For Action Is Now. Anything Else Is Dereliction Of Duty.
6
I would love to return north to the mostly-sane nation of Canada, if only I had ever lived there. I sure hope they don’t build a wall on their southern border!
7
Hideous. I'll never be able listen to him again without feeling disgust...
8
So many people are missing the point.
The Don doesn't care so much about the factual content of what he's saying as the fact that he gets to say things at all -- out loud, in front of cameras and sycophants, with the White House for gorgeous and "presidential" theatrics.
He seems to think that makes him important. Bigly.
15
The Palestinians, including millions in their Diaspora who are natural born citizens of other countries, have been clamoring for decades for the "Right of Return", because of their indelible connection to the land of their ancestors. It is not without irony that when Trump suggests that Rashida Tlaib do just that, she calls him a racist.
3
Journalists use phrases like "Trump's comments raise questions..."
Nope. His comments answer the question "is Trump racist?"
The answer is an unambiguous yes.
35
Elie Wiesel:
Wiesel said the world should never remain silent while humans suffer, because neutrality, he said, only aids the oppressor, never the victim.
"Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented," he said.
I admire The Squad for saying, bluntly, what must be said.
46
It looks as if Trump is following psychlops strategy by confusing and reducing everyone to base instincts as he does. There are bigger stories Trump is distracting you all from. Really big stories spanning decades. I'm not moved by all this hysteria because I know Trump is cultivating it under advisement. Just like the Kvanaugh hearings, Graham is taking cues from the White House, perhaps lined up for a future position. Start looking for hints that Trump is doing something towards public control.
14
So we've actually come to "America, love it or leave it" again. Just a couple things to think about from from former presidents:
“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
"I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind, it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind swept, God blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace - a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors, and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here."
_Ronald Reagan
Also, for those of you who think patriotism has something to do with molesting and/or wearing the flag, I would direct you to the US Flag Code Sec 8, paragraphs d,i,and j.
We're better than him and we're better than this
37
@John Keglovitz
One more from TR
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
Think about it.
Medicare For All will be the death of Democrats, never mind who’s a racist, and Trump’s having the easiest time of all with that one.
5
No medical for anyone will literally be the death of many of us. Insurance doesn’t heal people it robs them until they are not healthy and throws them away when they are sick.
It’s not healthcare.
2
Diversity is our strength.
17
"they vowed not to take the bait"
Responding, at all, IS taking the bait smh
7
Here’s a dirty little secret that is going to get trump re-elected - a lot of democratic voters feel the same way as trump.
17
When Donald Trump shows his true colors, I often wonder how he can face his wife. He has no respect for women of color or immigrants . Yet the "First Lady" falls into both these categories. He is a disgrace.
15
Trump is a racist and should be impeached
Please do everything you can to get him out of office- get involved and restore our democracy before it is too late
22
POTUS again diverted the conversations re children in cages, increasing deficit, international relations with allies, natural disasters, and such and attacked duly elected Congressional representatives women who have different ethnicity, religions, and amounts of melanin in their epidermis...what an amazing ' leader' we have in the White House and voices of silence in Congress
13
Where are the thousands of people in the streets demanding the president to resign for his latest racial comments ?, and many other offensive tweets since he became "president"(not!).
APATHY is the big problem in this country, very limited reaction. Social media , Facebook , tweets .... not going to do it!
Wake up USA!
22
I was out with around 500 people the other night. Organizing such a show of force isn’t easy. We have jobs and lives to maintain. And marching only really works when you are in mass numbers.
1
America is wide awake. And it mostly agrees with trump on this one - Democrats included.
2
Time to march on DC in the millions.
2
What makes this guy SO ANGRY?? Every single day he has to say something nasty about someone, anyone. He quite literally can't control himself. And people think this is normal behaviour for an adult human? It's unbelievable.
42
It's normal for his base! They love it and it makes them dig their heels deeper into the Trump rhetoric and their own racism and pro-white agenda.
"You attack our leader and we support him more no matter what he says".
Fanatical followers at their worse.
I am a white male – age 60+. Living in my neighborhood are a large number of kids whose families came from the Middle East, India, Pakistan and Spanish speaking countries. They ride their bikes, play soccer, smile and say “Hi” when I walk by. These kids are the future. They will do their best in school. They will dream, some will start businesses and some will be proud to serve their country. These are our American children. They have every right to be here – perhaps more so than the children of the loathsome creep who accidentally became President of the U.S.
84
I don't see how Lindsey Graham can call AOC a communist and then defend Trump, who calls the press "enemies of the people" and who openly admires dictators all over the world. If anyone behaves like a communist sympathizer (given that Putin has rolled back the clock), it's Trump.
41
@Barbara: My thoughts exactly! Putin was a colonel in the KGB, the Communist secret service - you can’t get more Communist than that, and Trump believes Putin over American intelligence agencies...
9
This guy at the head of the table in the WH is clearly out of control and, he cannot help himself. His lack of self control is without limits. There is no filter to prevent the insults, bullying, and diabolical attacks.
22
This is our country: rich in its diversity of race, ethnicity, language, and opinion. If Trump doesn't like it then he should leave it.
90
Our nation's enemies know something that most of our citizens are ignorant of: our people are only too eager to turn against each other at the least provocation. Trump is using this for his own, and for Russia's advantage. This nation is facing urgent crises, and how we handle them will determine our role in the future world. You cannot go backward. It is time to turn our attention to the urgent challenges we must meet if we are to be a global leader in the future. We have already sorely disappointed our allies, the other liberal western democracies.
20
In 1790, George Washington wrote a letter to Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island. Here’s an excerpt:
The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
trump has disgraced himself, his administration, and the entire nation with his repulsive and evil language, which I take as personally as the four women of color who spoke today in response.
I can’t imagine a more disgraceful display of bias, except for the lack of response from republicans in congress and the administration.
We apparently are a divided nation of bigots and their hated opposition.
39
The Democrats are falling into Trump's trap. They are forced into defending these four radicals instead of attacking the hundreds of radicals on the Republican side. Trump's strategy is evil but brilliant.
12
Trump is NOT brilliant.
He is merely crooked in many ways and is willing to do anything, anything , without any shame at all, to make others look bad so that he’ll look good.
It’s Psych 101. Too bad he himself can’t see how transparent he is .
BAIT - The 4 of them swallowed it hook, line and sinker.
Indignant - We all are, but their anger gets us no where.
Power - with their leftist positions they have very little power.
Leverage - Get it by joining most democrats as a group.
Keep the eye on the goal, dont let your anger reduce your effectiveness and ruin your chances in 2020 to get rid of Trump.
12
Let us keep the goal at restoring peace, prosperity and respect - not on Trump. Where energy flows, seedlings grow.
The four of them fell right into it...Instead of taking the "high road" the ladies fell right into his web. They are the ones who came across as angry and low...yes we have reached a new low. In this year of 2019 we are throwing the term racism around without any clear definition of what we are talking about. Social media has made us all experts on all topics.
10
This "squad" dog-and-pony show needs to come to an end. We Democrats need to work as a team. Defeating fascism is our only concern at this point. We need independents. We need libertarians. We need the Never-Trump Republicans. We need them all to register as Democrats and vote for a centrist candidate to unite this country. I'm voting for John Delaney.
9
I'd like to see Obama and Oprah, and Tom Hanks and others in Hollywood and Holocaust survivors - who can speak to the danger of stoking hate- rally in the same room as these women and wrap around them with good will and humanity. Show the better angels of Americans. Most Americans would respond positively.
Show that we love them and reject the "evil doer."
Trump wants these women front and center so his base can be scared.
Representative Omar wouldn't even be known by most Americans unless Trump made her a focus.
Now he can appeal to people who might fear her.
He put her and the others center stage for a reason. This is a tactic. He's terrified by the polls showing him gone in 2020.
To the decent people in this nation who still have their humanity, Ms. Omar is everything good about the American dream.
A bright woman who has American values deep at her core.
She showed her concern for average Americans who are trying to get by in a great interview this evening.
I'll take her over the plump, seedy, wife-cheating, Epstein buddy, greed monster in the White House.
Easy choice.
29
Once again distraction. To say the most despicable things possible about people with whom he chooses as targets draws our attention away from his treasonous use of Russians to win an election. How easy it is to forget in the cascade of events trump's actual crimes and failure as a president. In the eyes of his base attack strategy is mistaken for strength and foul words telling it like it is.
6
We are as close to the verge of another civil war as (in)humanly possible. Our history and unresolved racial issues are haunting us like ghosts, except they are flesh and blood and tearing communities apart. No words.
15
This Squad has no idea how extreme they sound to the majority of Americans.
Just let them keep talking on national TV.
16
@Dr. John: Nope. It’s Trump who sounds extreme to the majority of Americans.
12
@Anna
I totally agree with you. And John here is constantly attacking democrats and trying to intimidate them into being more republican.
4
Internal enemies like debt (financial), disease (of body or mind) and/or raging racism (like this) will tear apart the fabric of our society much sooner than we realize.
6
President Trump's off the cuff remarks convey racism for sure. That said, the Gang of Four is hellbent to derange Nancy Pelosi and divide the Democratic Party. Not a good strategy, as we approach the 2020 elections. We need to use the party caucuses to unite everyone.
8
The 4 congresswomen in question would do better if they quieted down and avoided hassles with Trump. He is the president and for now they cannot win but they can do grievous harm to the Democratic Party and lose the 2020 Election.
Exchanging nasty tweets with Trump is making them look as nasty and juvenile as he is. Their behavior should rise above his in dignity if they want the public to respect them. As things stand many of us Democrats are growing disappointed in them for their unruly actions and speech..
17
They were told to get out of their own country and followed by Trump birtherism rhetoric.
They are right to defend themselves in a sound logical and peaceful response.
You are sounding like the sniveling and spineless Democrats afraid of their own shadow. Republicans speak in one voice
while Democrats fight each other.
For one .... I am sick of it. Same 'ol / same 'ol.
Today's comments by Trump are a great reminder that whether we support Biden or Warren or Sanders or Harris or Mayor Pete or Booker or one of the others, whether we prefer Nancy or AOC, whether we're very liberal or very moderate, whether we're from the east or the west, the north or the south, come Election Day 2020 we're all on the same team.
Trump's racist tantrum reminds us that liberals, moderates,
progressives and independents may have disagreements among ourselves, but our differences are minor compared to our differences with this horrible person and the party that gives him shelter. He reminds once we have our nominee the majority of this nation is going to unite to remove him and show the world that Donald Trump is not representative of the American people.
30
The squad's articulate response to 45 was a glaring reminder of just how far above him they are in terms of intelligence, character, vocabulary, and maturity. Whether you like their views or not, they spoke eloquently and aptly in their response.
PS. We need a revolution now.
24
The 2020 election will be a great referendum on what kind of nation we want to be. One of immigrants (of which we are except for our native americans), or one of white nationalists (who would be abhorrent to our Founding Fathers who knew even then that slavery had to go).
I pray that Trump will be defeated by an overwhelming electoral vote. Shame on any state that gives him electoral votes.
11
Please don't draw a false equivalence between Trump's words and those of the Congresswomen. He routinely uses his position of power to degrade women, minorities, gay people, and anyone who disagrees with him. The Congresswomen call him out on that. The substance of their comments is completely different.
24
The only equivalence is that they both want the last word. That means that this could go on for a while.
3
The real target here is Ilhan Omar. Why?
1. She is black
2. She is a Muslim
3. She is a woman (not afraid of wearing a hijab)
4. She had the courage to take on some powerful (& untouchable) interests.
61
How were Trump's comments racist? They were uninformed and hostile, yes. And maybe nationalist if you really stretch the definition.
20
His words were racist because they implied that the congresswomen were not "from" the US (and that they were not really "American") by virtue of their racial heritage, even though all 4 are US citizens and 3 were born in the US. By the same logic, one could tell Trump to "go back" to Germany based on his ancestry, even though he's not "from" there. Trump only chooses such words when disparaging non-white individuals... You've never heard him tell a white American to "go back" to their European ancestral country.
3
@Pelham: Trump statement is racist because he is conflating citizenship with race (i.e. that these four non-white congresswomen aren't Americans). This is the same reason why the "birther" movement he led was racist.
2
Oh come on now. Call it what it is. What bad countries did you imagine he was referring to? Norway?Sweden?
The " squad " has no new ideas.
They are boring.
Trump gets what he wants every time.
The Press hates Trump but they are his biggest helpers.
Very predictable.
This story will go away and be replaced with something else.
The press is ready to help !
27
Back in 1968 & 1972 there was a blatantly Racist candidate for the Presidency, Alabama Governor George Wallace, whose campaign slogan was "Stand up for America".
To-day's President, & Candidate for 2020 (with a not dissimilar slogan) , seems determined to prove he's even more Racist, as he so crudely denigrates and derides elected Representatives (all U.S. Citizens) who happen to be all non-White, who disagree with him, and are thereby viewed as unworthy to be in "Trump's America".
Is this how bad it gets, or will the voters of 2020 say "enough is more than enough"?
20
For a number of years, particularly in the period from 2008 to 2016, Donald Trump was “dissatisfied” with the way “his” country was being run. He had no problem with speaking out against it, tweeting against it, running his mouth against it on every platform made available to him. He took great pleasure in constantly questioning the lineage of our first black president. Anyone remember “birtherism”?
I don’t recall anyone telling him that if he didn’t like what was happening, he should go “back” to where he came from. What he did, in fact, was parlay his “dissatisfaction” into becoming president of the United States.
His comments regarding the four duly elected representatives of their respective constituents are so rank as to be mind-boggling, almost laughable. But they come from the mouth of the so-called president of the United States and there really is nothing funny about it, or him, at all.
His message is - I can do it, but you cannot. Freedom of speech is mine, not yours. I can express my “dissatisfaction” in the most vile ways, but you better agree with me or get out. Especially if you are a person of color. And a woman to boot.
79
@Ronald: Your comment about the hypocrisy of Trump taking “the squad” to task for criticizing the US government when he did nothing BUT criticize for the eight years of President Obama’s tenure is so on point. Well done!
3
Please please please can we stop giving him and this issue airtime as he throws candy to his base by being increasingly inflammatory and racist. We need to get back to governing by addressing legislative issues the majority of American's care about. Please stop enabling him to control the narrative.
55
Wow, Lindsay Graham really helped himself to a double dose of the Kool Aid! Trump is marching this country toward political violence and Graham is kicking his boots with every step.
49
Lindsey is the new Jeff Sessions. Like him he doesn’t realize how ridiculous he looks. He forgets his words not so long ago where he extolled his hate and venom for him. It shows his true nature. Not that we needed anymore after meltdown over Kavanaugh. Adios Lindsey.
1
Another day of the clumsy and chaotic Prez, ( as aptly described by former British Ambassador).
18
So his version is that he's just saying "Love it or leave it". As a member of the Viet Nam generation, I've heard that before and it isn't any more just now than it was then. True patriotism involves criticizing the country you love when you think it has gone astray -- a civic duty.
77
Donald Trump is a man without dignity.
56
No objections from the GOP majority in the Senate;...and
none from the GOP in the House of Representatives....
I hope that there will be some members of the
Republican Party either in the Senate or the House or in any
public office anywhere in the United States who will
soon have the courage to denounce Trump and state they are not racists or misogynists ; if no member of The Republican
Party anywhere repudiates Donald Trump's hateful remarks
then they do not deserve to be in public office.
Let's start asking some Republican Governors...what they
think...and go from there....Trump does not believe in e
pluribus unnum…..so let's ask those in public office that
very simple question...; do you believe in democracy nor
don't you.
14
There is no one in the GOP that is prepared to oppose Trump. The only one who did has now left the party - Amash was the only one with the courage and intelligence to stand by his ethics. No other Republican is capable of doing that, and the Democrats need to start highlighting this and driving this message through 2020. A vote for a republican is a vote for corruption, ineptitude and chaos, not to mention abuse of human rights and other unethical practices.
Democrats - get your marketing machine working!!
1
Rebuke Trump's reprehensible raving -- of course.
Dismiss the claptrap and any type of weak walkback aides may -- or may -- not offer. They're clowns, protecting the biggest jester.
However ... do not get distracted. This is all meant to play out exactly as it is. Trump tweets, has a nice couple rounds of golf and knows he has everyone tied up in (justifiable) knots. All this is by design.
Give it a place on the priority list, a high place ... and remedy AFTER winning back WH in 2020. (Senate flip would be awesome also!)
Anything else is premature, and likely to allow R's to continue to dominate.
And if I may ask -- please, please, please -- smart and most welcome female freshman Reps... please stop referring to yourselves as 'The Squad.'
Abandon that phraseology immediately.
This isn't a Taylor Swift video, and such a pithy 'title' diminishes your important work and important roles.
Other than this ... Carry On!
27
The term “The Squad is very annoying. Four very different women have been lumped together with no benefit to any of them.
1
It is time to end this domestic war among members of the government and if they famous girls of the Squad are unhappy with Congress' agenda, they have to leave.
5
@Trassens. That is for their constituents to decide. As I see, you are from Florida so neither you not Trump have anything to say about it. They have every right to be unhappy with whatever they please and every right to speak out about it and try to change it if they can. The people in their voting districts will decide if they leave Congress, not you or Trump.
7
Why? If their constituents are unhappy, shouldn’t they be voted out? If not, aren’t they doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing?
5
Why should they leave? Anyone who disagrees with the ruling party should now be forced out? I am genuinely confused by your comment. I hope you don’t mean that anyone who criticizes government should get out, but that’s kind of what you are making it sound like, and that’s an ugly, naive and baffling sentiment.
5
Divide and Conquer. It's happening right now in our country and the stoli's are laughing on their way to the beach. Wake up America!
11
Solution: Elect Democrats. How many words is that?
35
Why? So the country’s destruction can be complete? Just like California and NY. That what you want?
7
@Kelly Mcgowan
I’m feeling left out. You didn’t mention Massachusetts!
2
@Kelly Mcgowan
Hmm, that's funny; I live in NY, and I don't see any "destruction" going on. In fact, things seem to be going pretty well in NY right now....
5
Right from the beginning of his campaign Trump was criticizing this country, saying how awful things were and only he could fix it. But let someone else have a different idea about what this country needs to be better for all of its citizens and all of a sudden this country is perfect and anyone who criticizes it is not a patriot. Give me a break!!!
49
Criticize this country? He has done nothing but praise the country and criticize people who hate it.
His continued reference to "Norway" as the preferred country of choice for immigration references the Nordic preference of Madison Grant et al a century ago, when Slavs, Jews & Italians were targeted for "darkening" America. Be careful America this is a dangerous game being played.
41
@Northcountry In Maine, where my Italian father's family settled they were treated worse than the blacks living in Maine. I won't even get into the treatment of my Acadian forefathers.
I believe this is THE defining question of the 2020 Republican primaries and likely the General Election: will good people of principled, conservative leanings tolerate the systematic degradation of our American values in exchange for the haphazard application of some - but not all - traditional conservative platforms.
Our children and the rest of the world are watching. Let's do something worthy of our espoused belief that we are a great nation.
23
Isn't it time for Trump to go back to Germany?
The problem is that they wouldn't want him there.
50