Trump says Squad is 'destroying the Democrat Party'
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
FOX NEWS - President Trump called out the four freshman congresswomen known as "The Squad," claiming that not only are they bad for America as a whole, they are damaging their own party.
The criticism comes amid a two-fronted political battle that Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley have been engaged in of late; one against Trump, and another against the Democratic establishment, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
"I don’t believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country," Trump tweeted Sunday morning. "They should apologize to America (and Israel) for the horrible (hateful) things they have said. They are destroying the Democrat Party, but are weak & insecure people who can never destroy our great Nation!"
The Democratic infighting began well before Trump started taking on the "Squad." After Pelosi dismissively said that the women "have their public whatever and their Twitter world," but didn’t have any following" in Congress. Ocasio-Cortez accused Pelosi of singling out women of color, which drew backlash from both parties.
A senior Democratic aide told The Hill that Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is “only a woman of color when it’s convenient,” and that she was “a puppet” of “elitist white liberals,” referring to Justice Democrats, the PAC that supports her. One senior Democratic source described Ocasio-Cortez as a "complete fraud" in an interview with Fox News.
Race-based jabs were also exchanged between Pressley, D-Mass., and the Congressional Black Caucus. CBC member Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., had claimed Justice Democrats, which backs AOC, was “targeting members of the Congressional Black Caucus” in primary races.
Pressley then told those in attendance at the Netroots Nation conference, “We don’t need black faces that don’t want to be a black voice.”
Trump eventually began addressing the four women on social media and in public remarks, but he too sparked some opposition from his own party after some believed one tweet went too far.
The president had tweeted that the "Democrat Congresswomen" should go back and fix the "corrupt" and "crime infested places" they came from and then "come back and show us how it's done" -- even though three of the four women were born in the United States. Telling minorities to "go back" to the countries they came from drew strong condemnation and accusations of racism.