The House of Representatives denounces Trump 'racist' tweets

The Democrats-led House of Representatives Tuesday (July 16) formally condemned President Donald Trump's Twitter posts as racist.

The House vote was split largely along party lines despite pressure for Republicans to denounce the president's attacks on four Democratic Congresswomen that they should "go back" to where they came from.

The vote, 240-187, fell nearly entirely along party lines with only four Republicans voting with Democrats.

The four Republicans lawmakers were: Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan and Rep. Susan Brooks of Indiana. Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, who recently left the GOP to become an independent, also voted in support of the resolution.

The resolution specifically called Trump's comments about "The Squad" Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.; Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.; and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. "racist" and says the attacks have "legitimized fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color."

The House rebuke was an embarrassing one for Trump even though it carries no legal repercussions, but if anything his latest harangues should help him with his die-hard conservative base, the Associated Press said adding.

The president responded to the news of the vote by levying even more attacks on the four congresswomen, accusing them on Tuesday of "spewing some of the most vile, hateful, and disgusting things every said by a politician in the House or Senate."

President Trump tweeted late Tuesday night about the vote and the ruckus that preceded it, saying, "So great to see how unified the Republican Party was on today's vote concerning statements I made about four Democrat Congresswomen. If you really want to see statements, look at the horrible things they said about our Country, Israel, and much more. They are now the top, most visible members of the House Democrats, who are now wedded to this bitterness and hate. The Republican vote was 187-4. Wow! Also, this was the first time since 1984 that the Speaker of the House was ruled Out of Order and broke the Rules of the House. Quite a day!"

Hours before of the vote, President Trump tweeted, "Those Tweets were NOT Racist. I don't have a Racist bone in my body!" He wrote that House Republicans should "not show 'weakness'" by agreeing to a resolution he labeled "a Democrat con game."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, one of Mr. Trump's four targets, returned his fire. "You're right, Mr. President - you don't have a racist bone in your body. You have a racist mind in your head and a racist heart in your chest," she tweeted.

The USA Today said the vote puts Republicans on the record as to whether they denounced the president's comments or stuck beside him. Throughout Tuesday's debates Democrats aimed to pressure Republicans to hold Trump accountable while Republicans resisted, denouncing the resolution as a political ploy.

The resolution's preamble

The four-page Democratic resolution said the House "strongly condemns President Donald Mr. Trump's racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color." It said Mr. Trump's slights "do not belong in Congress or in the United States of America."

The resolution's preamble traces U.S. history from the drafting of the Declaration of Independence to the Reagan administration in describing America's "commitment to immigration." The resolution itself lays out that the House:

1. "believes that immigrants and 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 America for many generations"

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