Trump news: Fresh calls for impeachment as House condemns president's racists attacks on Democratic congresswomen
The US House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to condemn Donald Trump’s tweets telling four Democratic congresswomen of color to “go back” to their countries of origin.
The vote was 240-187 and was solidly opposed by Republicans. It came after Mr Trump and top congressional Republicans denied he is a racist and urged GOP lawmakers to oppose the Democratic measure.
The resolution says the House “strongly condemns” Mr Trump’s “racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of colour.”
The president responded angrily on Twitter after the four Democratic congresswomen he attacked in a series of racist tweets – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib - staged a press conference on Monday night strongly condemning his behaviour and calling for his impeachment.
“The Democrat Congresswomen have been spewing some of the most vile, hateful, and disgusting things ever said by a politician in the House or Senate, & yet they get a free pass and a big embrace from the Democrat Party,” the president wrote on Twitter. “Horrible anti-Israel, anti-USA, pro-terrorist & public shouting of the F... word, among many other terrible things, and the petrified Dems run for the hills.”
With Republicans still desperate to avoid being drawn on the matter, Representative Omar attacked President Trump’s “white nationalist agenda” and said: “It is time for us to stop allowing this president to make a mockery of our constitution. It’s time for us to impeach this president.”
Immediately after the resolution vote, a Texas Democrat announced he would file articles of impeachment against Mr Trump in a move that could force a politically fraught vote by the end of the week.
Under House rules, a single member of the House can force an impeachment vote. Mr Green did so twice, unsuccessfully, when Republicans controlled the House.
For now, a majority of House Democrats appear to oppose impeachment.
And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has resisted launching official proceedings without broad bipartisan support.
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Donald Trump has responded angrily on Twitter after the four Democratic congresswomen he attacked in a series of racist tweets – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib - staged a press conference on Monday night strongly condemning his behaviour and calling for his impeachment.
“We will never be a Socialist or Communist Country. IF YOU ARE NOT HAPPY HERE, YOU CAN LEAVE!” the president ranted, repeating his accusation that the quartet, nicknamed "The Squad", are “anti-Israel, pro Al-Qaeda” and that "Radical Left Democrats" back open borders, "which means drugs, crime, human trafficking, and much more".
On Sunday, President Trump tweeted the following, beginning the outcry.
Here's Jane Dalton and Gemma Fox with a reminder of the context.
Speaking to the press last night, AOC, Omar, Pressley and Tlaib did not hold back in their remarks, urging America "not to take the bait" of the president's hate speech.
Omar was on especially fiery form, attacking President Trump’s “white nationalist agenda” and saying: “It is time for us to stop allowing this president to make a mockery of our constitution. It’s time for us to impeach this president.”
Omar wasn't done there, later appearing on MSNBC to say:
Here's Andrew Buncombe's report on an extraordinary moment in Washington.
Before all that, President Trump had taken questions from the press at the White House, telling reporters he does not mind his views reflecting those of neo-Nazis: “It doesn’t concern me because many people agree with me.”
He also used his platform ahead of a "Made in America Product Showcase" to further his attacks on Representative Omar, willfully misrepresenting past comments made by the Minnesota congresswoman - a Muslim born in Somalia - in what looked unavoidably like a dog whistle to far-right Islamophobes.
As condemnation rained down on him, Trump refused to back down, keeping this up on Twitter throughout the day, even demanding The Squad apologise to him!
Here's our report on the president's response to the latest escalating crisis of his own making.
The Republican response to all of this has, for the most part, to be as vague and evasive as possible.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer spoke for many when he called on the GOP to speak out against the president and asked: "Where are you?"
When they were prepared to answer a direct question about the racist tweets, they did so hurriedly and were as non-committal as they could get away with.
Only South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham - a man who once dismissed Trump as a "kook" unfit for the Oval Office - really leapt to the president's defence on Fox and Friends and even he said he should rein in the personal attacks.
Representative Will Hurd deserves a mention as a rare, noble exception.
Here's Ahmed Baba for Indy Voices on a what could be a pivotal moment for GOP credibility.
Also offering a weak response was Twitter, the social media giant insisting the tweets did not break its hate speech guidelines.
Trump has been at odds with the platform in recent weeks - despite making liberal use of it - refusing to invite company representatives to his White House Social Media Summit last Thursday and persistently complaining that the site is conspiring to drop his follower numbers as part of a broader campaign to silence conservative political voices.
In Britain, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has joined prime minister Theresa May and Tory leadership candidates Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt in condemning the racist tweets.
Johnson and Hunt called the comments "completely unacceptable" in their latest TV debate but backed away from explicitly calling them racist. Unlike Jezza.
Another man who did not hold back was Seth Meyers on Late Night, who labelled the president a "racist gargoyle who sits around tweeting from the back nine of his chintzy golf course".
One of the more astonishing reactions came, unsurprisingly, from Fox News, where pundit Dana Perino, a former White House secretary under George W Bush, complained about Ilhan Omar using the phrase "grab 'em by the p****" on live TV, overlooking the fact that she was quoting the president directly.
In other news, White House counsel Kellyanne Conway failed to appear before the House Judiciary Committee yesterday after being subpoenaed over an allegation she violated a federal ethics law known as the Hatch Act.
Here's the moment chairman Elijah Cummings addressed her empty chair.
The Conway no-show apparently came under direct orders from President Trump.
Chairman Cummings has since given her until 25 July to respond or be held in contempt.
Trump said during his brief press conference yesterday that the mass deportation raids being carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in at least ten US cities over the weekend were "very successful" despite the lack of much evidence to support this contention.
The event was clearly intended to be a dramatic deterrent against illegal immigration and an intimidating show of force but has so far seemingly failed to generate significant arrests.
You'd hardly expect Trump to say anything else about one of his own heavily trailed initiatives but Ken Cuccinelli, his acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, looked like a deer in the headlights when he told CNN he "does not know the details" of what ICE has been up to.
In all of Monday's back and forth, here's a story that should not be overlooked: the administration taking steps to officially end asylum protections for Central American migrants arriving at the US-Mexico border.
The US Justice Department published a new rule in the Federal Register yesterday that would make migrants passing through another country before arriving in the country initially ineligible for asylum.
The rule appeared set to provoke an extensive legal battle between the Trump administration and immigrant rights groups.
When Trump spoke at the podium yesterday afternoon, a press photographer zoomed in on his notes, which proved to contain a note misspelling al-Qaeda as "Alcaida".
Here's Greg Evans with more on the inevitable outpouring of ridicule on social media.
Trump appears to be teasing a treason investigation into tech investor Peter Thiel's claim Google is in league with China after seeing a report about his claims on Fox and Friends.
A number of American celebrities have taken to social media to express their disgust at the president's racist tweets including Janelle Monae, Chris Evans, Arnold Schwarzenegger and directors Ava DuVernay and Rob Reiner.
