President Trump spent the last week battling accusations of racism for his tweets suggesting liberal lawmakers "go back" where they came from, fix things and return to "show us how it's done."
But it turns out one of his targets -- Rep. Rashida Tlaib -- had a similar, even harsher, message for him during the 2016 campaign.
TRUMP MOCKS TLAIB FOR ‘SCREAMING’ AT 2016 SPEECH: ‘THIS IS NOT A SANE PERSON’
“Deport this a--hole!” Tlaib, D-Mich., tweeted in December 2015, linking to a story about then-presidential candidate Trump’s highly controversial call for "a total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the United States after the 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attack. Tlaib, a Muslim, was later elected to Congress in 2018.
Tlaib’s tweet holds new relevance amid the outrage over Trump’s attacks on the so-called “Squad” made up of Reps. Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.
Trump provoked a firestorm -- and accusations of racism from Democrats -- after suggesting they "go back" (though all but Omar were born in the U.S.) and saying the lawmakers should leave the country if they don’t like the United States. Tlaib has responded to Trump’s comments by renewing her calls to impeach him.
"I'm not going nowhere, not until I impeach this president,” she said during a speech Monday.
A spokesman for Tlaib did not immediately return a request for comment about the 2015 tweet and whether it's consistent with her criticism of Trump's comments about her and the other Democrats.
On Tuesday, Trump took aim at Tlaib during a speech to conservative students, calling her a “crazed lunatic” after video resurfaced over the weekend showing her shouting as she was dragged out of a Trump speech in 2016.
“She’s like a crazed lunatic,” Trump said at a summit of Turning Point USA. “She’s screaming just before she got into Congress. Who elected her? She’s screaming like a total lunatic at one of our rallies.”
Video of the August 2016 incident, which has gone viral since resurfacing over the weekend, shows Tlaib shouting as then-candidate Trump delivered a speech before business leaders at the Detroit Economic Club. While being escorted out of the room, she continued to jump and yell at those in attendance.
“You guys are crazy!” Tlaib can be heard shouting.