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WASHINGTON - President Trump was unbowed by criticism of his racist tweets against four U.S. congresswomen of color, saying, “If you're not happy here, then you can leave.”
Trump said Monday at the White House, "If you're not happy in the U.S., if you're complaining all the time, you can leave, you can leave right now."
“These are people who hate our country,” Trump added.
But all four of the congresswomen are U.S. citizens. They include Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Only Omar, from Somalia, is foreign-born, though she has been a U.S. citizen since her youth.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House will vote on a resolution condemning Trump's tweets telling the four Democratic congresswomen of color to "go back" to their countries.
Pelosi on Monday said Trump "went beyond his own low standards using disgraceful language about members of Congress" and said his xenophobic and "disgusting" comments cannot stand without rebuttal.
Pelosi has called on lawmakers from both major political parties to support the resolution, which will cite former President Ronald Reagan's last speech as president in which he thanked immigrants, adding that if the U.S. "ever closed the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.“
The resolution is sponsored by New Jersey Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski, who was born in Poland and joined by others born outside the U.S.
Trump continued on Monday to shrug off sharp criticism for his tweets on Sunday against the four congresswomen.
“So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly...“ he tweeted.
“and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how....”
“....it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!” he said in a third tweet.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles.