COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. — President Donald Trump spoke to reporters on the South Lawn Monday about his tweets from this weekend telling Democratic Congresswomen to go back to the countries they came from.
Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez responded on Twitter saying the president’s words were “hallmark language of white supremacists.”
But Russell Tuff, chairman of Collier County Republican Party said the president’s tweets were not racist or targeted towards anyone.
“Everybody knows he’s not racist. They’re trying anything to knock the poor guy down,” he said “He didn’t mention a name, nor did he mention a race.”
Suzanne Cherney with Collier Democrats said the President alluded to congresswomen of color like Cortez and Ilhan Omar who have spoken out against the his immigration policies and poor conditions of migrant detention centers, even though Cortez was born in the U.S.. and Omar became a citizen when she was 17 years old.
“He pulls the veil down just enough, so that he can plead innocence and ignorance, and his meaning is very clear,” said Cherney.
She said the president’s tweets reiterate his previous policies and views that targeted people of color like his travel ban against Muslim countries and questioning former President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.
“Mr. Trump, if you’re going to tell people to go back home, why don’t you have the courage to tell it to somebody white like me?” she asked.
Cherney said although she's not a congresswoman, she felt personally offended by the President's tweets.
"My parents who escaped from Nazi Germany, would not have been very happy to be told to go back to Berlin," she said.
And Tuff said the three congresswomen who responded only did so to boost their approval ratings and distract from border control.
“The party that’s most upset is trying to block his efforts to make reasonable things happen at that border. We can’t take all those people. We just can’t,” he said.
Cherney said immigration policy should remain a priority.
“We have to have policies in place, but they’ve got to be humane,” she said.
