Ari Fleischer: Trump went too far telling Dem freshmen to 'go back' where they came from
Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer said Monday that President Trump "went too far" on Twitter when he went after four freshmen Democratic members of Congress.
Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer said Monday that President Trump "went too far" on Twitter when he went after four freshmen Democratic members of Congress.
Trump doubled down Monday after taking heavy fire for inflammatory tweets in which he called on Democratic congresswomen to "go back" to where they came from -- even though most of his intended targets were born in America. He called on those same lawmakers to "apologize," alleged they "hate" America and chastised the party for defending them.
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Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump also denied that his tweets were racist and said: “If someone doesn’t like our country, if someone doesn’t want to be in our country, they should leave.”
He continued: “These are people that hate our country. … they hate it, I think, with a passion.”
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Responding on "Outnumbered Overtime," Fleischer said Trump should stick to criticizing Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., on policy issues and leave personal attacks out of it.
"I just don't think anybody in American politics should challenge people from the basis of where they are from, which is essentially what the president did," said the former White House press secretary under George W. Bush.
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Fleischer said Trump often "goes too far" when he uses Twitter, adding the "go back" remark was not presidential and "inappropriate." He said the four House Democrats use "equally inflammatory language" against Trump but do not face the same type of media criticism.
Fleischer argued Trump appears to have made a strategic mistake by taking attention away from the feud between Ocasio-Cortez and her allies and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
"In this instance, politically, these Democrats were at war with Nancy Pelosi, there was a fire going on between them and Nancy Pelosi and President Trump, in effect, became the fire extinguisher and reunited the Democratic Party."
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