GOP leaders haven't said a word about Trump's racist attack on congresswomen

Republican leaders are silently accepting Trump’s latest racist attack, this time aimed at four congresswomen. More than 24 hours after Trump made the attacks, every single Republican leader in the House and Senate has refused to condemn it.

On Sunday morning, Trump let loose with a racist tirade targeting four women of color who serve as congresswomen in the House of Representatives: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI).

Trump said the congresswoman should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.”

The racist demand of telling people of color to “go back” somewhere implies that anyone who is not white is not really American. And Trump has made it clear that he does not believe the congresswomen listed above are truly American, despite the fact that three out of the four were born on American soil. The other, Omar, fled Somalia at the age of 10 to escape violence, then spent time in a refugee camp in Kenya before being granted asylum in the United States in the early 1990s.

Not a single Republican leader has mustered the courage or integrity to speak out against Trump’s racism. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is silent. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is silent. The leadership at the Republican National Committee is silent.

“The silence of Republican leaders appeared to suggest either that they agreed with the views expressed by their standard-bearer or that he has so effectively consolidated his control over their party that they have grown disinclined to voice dissent,” the Washington Post reports.

Democrats have spoken out in droves.

“Growing up I used to hear ‘go back to Mexico’ from many kids, though I was born in the USA,” Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) tweeted. “I thought then that it was just kids.”

Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), who was born in Peru, pointed out the extent to which Trump’s attacks are based in racism.

“Unlike the Democratic Congresswomen [Trump] attacked today, I actually am a foreign-born Member of Congress,” Himes wrote on Twitter. “But I’m a white male of European descent, so there’s no chance he’ll attack me. His tantrum has nothing to do with birthplace.”

Even most rank and file Republicans refuse to defend their colleagues in Congress against such a vile attack. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) managed a mediocre repudiation of Trump but qualified it by implying Democrats are weak on immigration issues.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, who years ago called Trump “a race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot,” couldn’t muster a single syllable of criticism this time around, meekly suggesting that perhaps Trump should “aim higher” and not make things “personal.”

Before the 2018 midterm, Trump rejected economic arguments and focused on anti-immigrant racism instead. If his tweets this weekend are any indication, he looks to employ the same losing tactic in 2020, with Republicans in Congress cowardly going along with it.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.