Washington DC [USA]: Defiant amid criticism, United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that his recent tweets telling four congresswomen of colour to go back to their "broken, crime-infested countries" were "not racist." "Those Tweets were NOT Racist. I don't have a Racist bone in my body!" Trump wrote on Twitter, adding that the Republicans should not "show weakness and fall into their (Democrat's) trap."
The remarks were directed at Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley who recently condemned the President's immigration policies.
As pointed in a report by the New York Times, Omar was born in Somalia but immigrated to the US when she was a child. She later became a naturalised citizen of the country when she was 17-years-old. The other three Democrats are natural-born US citizens.
In the following tweet on Tuesday, the US President said that the four Congresswoman "hate our country", as evident by their actions.
"Get a list of the HORRIBLE things they have said. Omar is polling at 8%, Cortez at 21%. Nancy Pelosi tried to push them away, but now they are forever wedded to the Democrat Party. See you in 2020!," the Tweet read.
All four congresswomen have since responded to the criticism by the US President.
"He (Trump) does not embody the grace, the empathy, the compassion, the integrity that that office requires and that the American people deserve," said Massachusetts lawmaker Ayanna Pressley during a joint presser held with fellow Democratic leaders Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.
"That being said, I encourage the American people and all of us in this room and beyond to not take the bait. This is a disruptive distraction from the issues of care, concern, and consequence to the American people," she added.
