Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

As it happenedended

Trump news: Fresh calls for impeachment as House condemns president's racists attacks on Democratic congresswomen

House votes to condemn president's racist tweets

Chris Riotta
New York
,Joe Sommerlad
Tuesday 16 July 2019 18:32 BST
Comments
Donald Trump falsely claims Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar had praised al-Qaeda

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The US House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to condemn Donald Trump’s tweets telling four Democratic congresswomen of color to “go back” to their countries of origin.

The vote was 240-187 and was solidly opposed by Republicans. It came after Mr Trump and top congressional Republicans denied he is a racist and urged GOP lawmakers to oppose the Democratic measure.

The resolution says the House “strongly condemns” Mr Trump’s “racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of colour.”

The president responded angrily on Twitter after the four Democratic congresswomen he attacked in a series of racist tweets – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib - staged a press conference on Monday night strongly condemning his behaviour and calling for his impeachment.

“The Democrat Congresswomen have been spewing some of the most vile, hateful, and disgusting things ever said by a politician in the House or Senate, & yet they get a free pass and a big embrace from the Democrat Party,” the president wrote on Twitter. “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.”

With Republicans still desperate to avoid being drawn on the matter, Representative Omar attacked President Trump’s “white nationalist agenda” and said: “It is time for us to stop allowing this president to make a mockery of our constitution. It’s time for us to impeach this president.”

Immediately after the resolution vote, a Texas Democrat announced he would file articles of impeachment against Mr Trump in a move that could force a politically fraught vote by the end of the week.

Under House rules, a single member of the House can force an impeachment vote. Mr Green did so twice, unsuccessfully, when Republicans controlled the House.

For now, a majority of House Democrats appear to oppose impeachment.

Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events

And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has resisted launching official proceedings without broad bipartisan support.

Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load

Donald Trump said in the Oval Office he was confident immigration reform could be a winning election issue for Republicans if he can’t manage to get it passed now. 

He also said he was confident the US Senate would pick up Republican seats and the GOP would win back the US House of Representatives. 

Chris Riotta16 July 2019 18:29

Here's video of Kellyanne Conway asking a reporter's ethnicity during her chat today outside of the White House -

Chris Riotta16 July 2019 18:50

Roger Stone has been barred from posting on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter by a US federal judge after prosecutors said he repeatedly violated a court-imposed gag order.

US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson had imposed the order in February after Mr Stone posted a photo of the judge with what appeared to be cross hairs of a gun.

Defence lawyers said nothing Donald Trump's former adviser and self-proclaimed "dirty trickster" posted on social media ran afoul of the judge’s order or would prevent an unbiased jury from hearing the case.

Story to come...

Chris Riotta16 July 2019 19:05

Here's my story on Roger Stone's social media ban -

Chris Riotta16 July 2019 19:25

Donald Trump also attacked his predecessor during today's Oval Office meeting in front of reporters, claiming it was because of his former administration why Turkey bought missiles from Russia -

Chris Riotta16 July 2019 19:45

The president also suggested his attorney general should probe whether Google committed treason -

Chris Riotta16 July 2019 20:05

The US House of Representatives is currently debating a resolution to condemn Donald Trump's racist remarks. Here's the full resolution below -

Chris Riotta16 July 2019 20:25

The Senate majority leader stopped short of calling out Donald Trump over his divisive rhetoric at a press conference on Tuesday -

Chris Riotta16 July 2019 20:45

They’re all women of colour. Every one of them is an American citizen.

And of the four members of the self-styled “squad” duly elected to the House of Representatives, only one was born outside the US.

In racist tweets over the weekend, Donald Trump almost certainly was referring to this group of liberal House freshmen whose elections in 2018 helped return the chamber to Democratic control.

Chris Riotta16 July 2019 21:05

Donald Trump inadvertently exhibited his handwritten notes during a speech, revealing how he planned to attack four Democratic congresswomen – as well as a glaring spelling error which has been ridiculed online.

The US president brandished a piece of paper with a list of prompts during his latest racist rant outside the White House on Monday.

Pictures taken by Washington Post photographer Jabin Botsford showed a scribbled note about “Alcaida”, seemingly a phonetic misspelling of Al-Qaeda.

Chris Riotta16 July 2019 21:25

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in