The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) isn’t letting Trump’s recent racist rant, directed toward Democratic congresswomen, slide.
Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), chair of the caucus, responded to Trump’s tweets on Monday. While the president didn’t explicitly name anyone in his rant, he was apparently targeting four high-profile lawmakers of color ― Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota ― when he told them to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
In an exclusive statement to HuffPost, Chu called Trump’s comments “racist and utterly beneath the office of the president.”
“As chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, I unequivocally condemn the president’s message of intolerance and hate.”
The freshmen congresswomen have long been critical of Trump and at a progressive conference on Saturday, both Omar and Tlaib made jabs at the president.
“We’re going to impeach the MF’er, don’t worry,” Tlaib told the crowd.
Following his Sunday rant, Trump only reiterated his racist comments, in a follow-up tirade, during which he said that it was “so sad to see the Democrats sticking up for people who speak so badly of our Country and who, in addition, hate Israel with a true and unbridled passion. Whenever confronted, they call their adversaries, including Nancy Pelosi, ‘RACIST.’”
“Their disgusting language and the many terrible things they say about the United States must not be allowed to go unchallenged,” he tweeted.
Chu responded to the latest racist tweetstorm, saying that “The fact that he has since doubled down on these comments is appalling and only serves to embolden white supremacists and sow division in our country.”
“Far too many in our community have been stereotyped as foreigners and told to ‘go back to where they came from’ regardless of how long their families have lived in the United States.”
- Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.)
The CAPAC chair pointed out that when it comes to the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, the vast majority are immigrants. Almost 60 percent of the community was born in another country, according to Pew Research. That proportion increases to more than 70 percent when looking at adults. And with the population’s rapid growth, the racial group is on track to become the largest immigrant group in the country by 2055. Several members of the caucus themselves are immigrants or children of immigrants as well, the representative pointed out, and “we will not tolerate xenophobic attempts to paint U.S. citizens with immigrant roots as less American than anyone else.”
“Far too many in our community have been stereotyped as foreigners and told to ‘go back to where they came from’ regardless of how long their families have lived in the United States,” Chu said in her statement.
Chu also called on her Republican colleagues in Congress to denounce the “dangerous racism espoused by this president.”
Since Trump launched his initial racist diatribe, several members of CAPAC have slammed the president for his vitriol, including Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), who called him a “racist ass.”
“I never thought I would see the day when the president of the United States is telling immigrants to go back to where we came from,” Lieu said on MSNBC Sunday. “Donald Trump once again demonstrates that he’s a racist ass. He is dividing Americans rather than trying to unify us, and I can’t wait to see him leave the office of the president.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) also spoke out against Trump’s tweets as well, claiming that the vast majority of Americans do not stand with the president on the subject “and remember their own immigration histories that brought them here.”
“Your cruelty is sickening. Your egotism is laughable. And you are going to successfully turn millions of Americans into supporters of your opponent in 2020 with these disgusting attacks,” she wrote. “You are a disgrace to our country and our values.”