Trump: My tweets 'were NOT Racist'

President Donald Trump asserted Tuesday that his recent tweets targeting a quartet of progressive congresswomen "were NOT Racist," and urged Republican lawmakers to vote against a House resolution formally condemning the incendiary posts.

"Those Tweets were NOT Racist. I don’t have a Racist bone in my body! The so-called vote to be taken is a Democrat con game. Republicans should not show 'weakness' and fall into their trap," the president wrote online. "This should be a vote on the filthy language, statements and lies told by the Democrat ... Congresswomen, who I truly believe, based on their actions, hate our Country."

Trump also tweeted that the four lawmakers — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) — are now "forever wedded to the Democrat Party" despite efforts by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) "to push them away," warning: "See you in 2020!"

The House is expected to take up a measure Tuesday evening denouncing "President Trump's racist comments directed at Members of Congress." Trump on Sunday wrote on Twitter that the congresswomen should "go back” to where they came from, even though three of the four — Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley and Tlaib — were born in the U.S. and Omar, a refugee from Somalia, has been a citizen since she was 17.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump had carried his tirade against the freshman lawmakers into its third day, tweeting that the House should move to rebuke them for "spewing some of the most vile, hateful, and disgusting things ever said by a politician" in Congress, and complaining that they "get a free pass and a big embrace" from the Democratic Party.

“Horrible anti-Israel, anti-USA, pro-terrorist & public shouting of the F...word, among many other terrible things, and the petrified Dems run for the hills,” Trump continued. “Why isn’t the House voting to rebuke the filthy and hate laced things they have said? Because they are the Radical Left, and the Democrats are afraid to take them on. Sad!”