SENIOR COUNSEL TO Donald Trump, Kellyanne Conway, defended the president’s “racist” remarks about four congresswomen by questioning the ethnicity of a reporter during a press briefing.
Trump came under fire from Democrats and some Republicans over tweets at the weekend telling four congresswoman of different ethnic backgrounds to “go back” to their “own countries”.
“Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” he said on Sunday.
The president has stood by his comments, tweeting yesterday: “I truly believe, based on their actions, [they] hate our country.”
Conway has insisted that Trump’s comments were not racist, despite a majority vote by the US House of Representatives condemning the remarks.
During a press conference yesterday, she continued to defend Trump, before bizarrely questioning the ethnicity of a reporter.
“What’s your ethnicity?,” she asked, with the reporter, Andrew Feinberg then questioning why that was relevant.
“No, No, because I’m asking you a question. My ancestors are from Ireland and Italy.”
Feinburg is reported in US media as being of Jewish descent, while he also tweeted to say that he has a mix of Latvian, Russian, Polish and Lithuania roots.
“A lot of us are sick and tired of this country, of America coming last, to people who swore an oath of office,” Conway said.
“Sick and tired of our military being denigrated. Sick and tired of the Customs and Border patrol people – protection people – who are overwhelmingly Hispanic by the way in McAllen, Texas, sick and tired of them – you don’t understand ’cause you didn’t go – being criticised.
She continued: “[They are] Being doxxed by a bunch of Hollywood D-listers who have nothing to do but sit on their asses on Twitter all day, and try and doxx brave men and women who are diving into the Rio Grande to save people who are drowning.”
The four women at the centre of Trump’s comments are Democratic congresswomen, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib.
Tlaib, a muslim woman who was born in Detroit, Michigan and has Palestine heritage, tweeted that Trump should be impeached for “his dangerous ideology”.
“This is what racism looks like. We are what democracy looks like. And we’re not going anywhere except back to DC to fight for the families you marginalize and vilify everyday,” Massachussetts’ congresswoman Ayanna Pressley said.
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