State Republican leaders are weighing in on the President’s controversial tweet where he said four congresswomen of color should “go back to where they came from.” Many in the Democratic Party call it a racist tweet, but Louisiana Republican Congressman Ralph Abraham disagrees.
“No, this has nothing to do with race, gender, or creed. I don’t care where you came from but I am sick and tired of tearing this country down, and saying how bad they think we are.”
Abraham says if the four Congresswomen want to go somewhere else, he would pay for their plane ticket.
“We have wonderful milk and honey in our nation. These people want to take our milk and honey but they don’t want to honor our country, come on.”
US Senator John Kennedy says the tweet was not worded well, but it’s not a racist remark and backed up the President’s criticism of the four freshman Congresswomen.
“They hate America, they think America was wicked in its origins, and they think it is even more wicked today. They ought to be thanking America.”
The four young Congresswomen, known as “The Squad,” have been vocal of their criticism of the Trump administration’s immigration and criminal justice policies.
But Southern University Political Science Department Chairman Albert Samuels says the statement is racist because it taps into a history of telling non-white citizens that they aren’t patriotic if they speak out.
“If you are the wrong color, or the “wrong religion,” unless you are willing to renounce your racial identity, or renounce other things, then you have no place in America.”
Three of the Congresswomen were born in the US, and the fourth was naturalized.
Samuels sees that Republican leaders’ support of the “racist” remark is a political strategy that taps into white racial resentment over the nation’s changing demographics.
“That is the grand bargain that the Republican Party has made over the generations, and it has largely been successful.”
Louisiana Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen Carter Peterson says the Republican Congressional delegation’s support for the “racist remarks shameful.”
