WASHINGTON – As President Donald Trump stepped up his assaults Monday on 4 House Democratic freshmen nicknamed “the squad,” Muslim and immigrants rights teams in Chicago slammed Illinois Republicans for a Facebook put up on a GOP website calling the quartet the “Jihad squad.”
Trump, in a race-baiting technique he apparently sees as a method to win a second time period, stated in a Monday tweet: “The ‘Squad’ is a very Racist group of troublemakers who are young, inexperienced, and not very smart. They are pulling the once great Democrat Party far left, and were against humanitarian aid at the Border…And are now against ICE and Homeland Security. So bad for our Country!”
“The squad” consists of 4 outspoken House members who’re among the many most progressive in Congress: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York; Rashida Tlaib of Michigan; Ilhan Omar of Minnesota; and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, who was raised in Chicago.
In a CNN interview, Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., was requested her response. “Well, it’s extremely disappointing that the president continues to lob these horrible insults to my colleagues who’re sensible, who’re ready, who’re doing their work and repair to our nice nation.
“But guess what, Mr. President — we’re not going wherever, and we’re not afraid of you. And so we’re going to proceed to to serve the individuals, enhance well being care, cope with this humanitarian scenario our border and ensure that we’re serving the American individuals in the best way that they’ve instructed us.”
Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Ill., proven throughout a committee listening to earlier this yr, was interviewed on CNN Monday and defended her colleagues who’ve been attacked by Trump on Twitter: “We’re not going anywhere, and we’re not scared of you.”Lynn Sweet/Sun-Times
Gov. J.B. Pritzker, in a tweet, applauded an apology from Illinois GOP leaders for the offensive Facebook put up, however the governor added that “simply speaking out this one time isn’t enough.”
Trump is intent on retaining the highlight on “the squad.” He first hit the lawmakers — all girls of shade — greater than per week in the past, when he stated in a tweet they need to “go back” to the “totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Only Omar was born outdoors the U.S.
Monday within the Oval Office, a pool reporter requested Trump why he was “escalating your feud with the four congresswomen, and [escalating] racial tensions in so doing?”
Replied Trump: “Well, I think they’re very bad for our country. I really think they must hate our country.”
Trump, persevering with to attempt to deflect consideration from what he’s saying, added:
“I think they’re very bad for the Democrat Party. I think you see that. And they’re pulling the Democrats way left. Nobody knows how to handle them. I feel they’re easy to handle. To me, they’re easy to handle because they’re just out there. They’re very bad for our country. Absolutely.”
Trump additionally denied stoking racial tensions.
Trump spoke and tweeted the day after the leaders of the Illinois Republican County Chairmen’s Association, the Illinois Republican Party and the Cook County Republicans denounced a mock film poster showing Friday on the Illinois Republican County Chairmen’s Association Facebook web page depicting the 4 because the ‘Jihad squad.”
”It has grow to be widespread apply to see a lot of these memes on varied social media belonging to Republican Party officers,” Ahmed Rehab, the Chicago government director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, stated at a Loop press convention Monday.
“Sometimes they’re taken down and an apology given too little, too late. Sometimes they continue to be on the market. But the actual fact stays that there’s a cultural downside that enables a lot of these problematic, xenophobic, racist imagery to proceed to come back out frequently on these Facebook and Twitter and…