House Rebuke of Trump for Racism Unites Democrats, Energizes GOP

The Democratic-led House responded to Donald Trump’s sustained attacks on four female Democratic lawmakers by taking the extraordinary step of rebuking the president for racism.

The resolution -- backed Tuesday by all 235 Democrats, four Republicans and one independent -- accused the president of having “legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color,” a serious accusation that sharply draws the battle lines going into the 2020 elections.

Trump had egged Democrats on, issuing his tweets and incendiary remarks for three straight days. “It’s my opinion they hate our country,” he said Tuesday during a cabinet meeting at the White House, speaking of the quartet that includes Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

For each side, the moment played to their party’s base. Democrats, under pressure to begin impeachment proceedings for a polarizing president, took a strong, but symbolic, swipe at Trump.

Republicans and Trump, who decried Tuesday night’s House vote as partisan politics, tried to tie all Democrats to the progressive -- and at times controversial -- image of Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, all women of color.

In their first joint interview airing Wednesday, Pressley told CBS that Trump is merely “occupying” the White House and disputed the charge that the four have dishonored the office of the presidency.

“He’s only occupying the space,” Pressley said. “He does not embody the principles, the responsibility, the grace, the integrity of a true president. And so for that reason I am not dishonoring the office. He does every day. This is a distraction. This is a disruption.’’