House Of Representatives Votes To Formally Condemn Donald Trump For ‘Racist’ Tweets
The House of Representatives voted to formally condemn Donald Trump for a series of weekend tweets that many have deemed racist and inflammatory, Yahoo News reports.
Last weekend, Trump tweeted that four freshmen Democratic congresswomen — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota — should go back to their “broken” and “crime-infested” countries. Of the four, only one, Omar, was not born in the United States.
The tweet has been widely criticized by the women themselves, their Democratic supporters in Congress, and pundits from both sides of the aisle speaking to the media. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, even a handful of Republican politicians joined in.
Trump, for his part, has refused to apologize for the tweets and even suggested that the women themselves apologize for remarks some of them have made in the past.
On Tuesday, following hours of sometimes-rancorous debate as well as procedural maneuvers on both sides of the aisle intended to affect the outcome of the vote, the House voted to pass a resolution to formally condemn Trump for the tweets. The vote was largely along party lines, 240-187. According to CNN, four Republicans — Reps. Will Hurd of Texas, Susan Brooks of Indiana, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, and Fred Upton of Michigan, voted with the Democrats to pass the resolution. One Independent, Justin Amash of Michigan, also joined the Democrats in passing the resolution.
The final House vote was 240-187 in favor of the resolution with four Republicans and one independent voting with Democrats.
• Rep. Will Hurd
• Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick
• Rep. Fred Upton
• Rep. Susan Brooks
• Independent Rep. Justin Amash https://t.co/CpPOtYmDne pic.twitter.com/TQ4yPxJMfs— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 16, 2019
“If we’re going to bring civility back to the center of our politics, we must speak out against inflammatory rhetoric from anyone in any party anytime it happens. America embraces diversity, and that must continue,” Upton said.
The resolution, like almost all resolutions passed by any chamber in Congress, is entirely symbolic and carries no real weight.
As NJ.com reported in 2017, Congress, as a whole, has a number of measures that it can take against the president, only one of which carries any real weight. Either chamber can issue a resolution of condemnation, as the House did Tuesday. Similarly, either chamber can issue a resolution of censure, which is symbolically stronger than a resolution of condemnation but again, carries no real weight. Only one president, Andrew Jackson, has ever been censured (censuring is generally reserved for other congressmen/women). The final action Congress can take against the president is impeachment and subsequent removal from office. Only two presidents, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, have been impeached, but neither man was subsequently removed from office, and both went on to finish their terms.
