Early this Sunday morning, President Donald Trump took to Twitter with a racist attack on members of Congress, asserting that instead of criticizing his administration, they should essentially “go back to where they came from.” Although he didn’t mention her explicitly, one of the implied targets was progressive New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D), who passionately shot down the president’s belligerent racist whining in a string of tweets posted in response. She asserted, quite simply, that Trump is lost in a racist fantasy and completely disconnected from reality, but that doesn’t mean it’s not going to keep coming for him in the form of the surge of progressive activism symbolized by figures including Ocasio-Cortez and Democratic Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.).
As Ocasio-Cortez put it in direct response to the president:
‘Mr. President, the country I “come from,” & the country we all swear to, is the United States. But given how you’ve destroyed our border with inhumane camps, all at a benefit to you & the corps who profit off them, you are absolutely right about the corruption laid at your feet… You are angry because you can’t conceive of an America that includes us. You rely on a frightened America for your plunder. You won’t accept a nation that sees healthcare as a right or education as a #1 priority, especially where we’re the ones fighting for it. Yet here we are… On top of not accepting an America that elected us, you cannot accept that we don’t fear you, either. You can’t accept that we will call your bluff & offer a positive vision for this country. And that’s what makes you seethe.’
The swaths of America that Ocasio-Cortez points to could have powerful ramifications for Trump’s political career just next year. Currently, Trump is consistently behind leading Democratic presidential primary candidates by significant margins in hypothetical general election match-ups.
Ocasio-Cortez is far from the only one to speak out against the president’s belligerent racism in the meantime. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has been at odds with the president plenty of times before, asserted also on Twitter that she rejects Trump’s “xenophobic comments meant to divide our nation.” Michigan Congressman Justin Amash, who just recently announced he was leaving the GOP to become an independent, called Trump’s behavior “racist and disgusting.”
Check out Twitter’s response to Ocasio-Cortez below.
Featured Image via screenshot
