Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton slammed President Donald Trump’s racist attacks on a squad of Democratic congresswomen on Sunday, clapping back that there was one person responsible for the “complete and total catastrophe” in Washington: the president himself.
“They’re from America,” Clinton wrote on Twitter, referencing Trump’s inaccurate statements about progressive women in Congress. “And you’re right about one thing: Currently their government is a complete and total catastrophe.”
Her comments came just hours after Trump wrote on Twitter that a coalition of “Progressive Democrat Congresswomen” who came from “countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe” should “go back” to the “broken and crime infested places from which they came.” The comments were largely viewed as a vitriolic attack against four high-profile women elected to Congress last year: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.).
All four are women of color, but only one — Omar — was born outside of the United States. The lawmaker was born in Somalia and immigrated to the U.S. when she was a child.
Clinton has become a vocal and noted critic of the president since her defeat in 2016, lambasting his frequent invocations of her name, chastising him for spreading “sexist trash” and accusing the Trump administration of conducting “despicable” acts. She has vowed to “continue to speak out and fight for our basic rights,” even if it sometimes irks those in Washington.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also came to her colleagues’ defense on Sunday, accusing the president of “xenophobic comments meant to divide our nation.”
Republicans, on the other hand, have largely stayed silent. The hosts of “Fox & Friends” went so far as to applaud Trump’s remarks on Sunday.
Despite the outcry, Trump doubled down on his remarks later that evening, saying it was “so sad to see the Democrats sticking up for people who speak so badly of our Country.”
“Their disgusting language and the many terrible things they say about the United States must not be allowed to go unchallenged,” he tweeted. “If the Democrat Party wants to continue to condone such disgraceful behavior, then we look even more forward to seeing you at the ballot box in 2020!”