Condemning President Trump's Racist Comments Directed At Members of Congress

Floor Speech

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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 491, I call up the resolution (H. Res. 489) condemning President Trump's racist comments directed at Members of Congress, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

The Clerk read the title of the resolution.

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Mr. NADLER. Res. 489.

Mr. Speaker, the comments described in this resolution were not just offensive to our colleagues; they were inconsistent with the principles and values upon which this Nation was founded.

In urging four female Members of Congress of color to ``go back'' where they came from, these comments were not only factually incorrect, but they were also deeply hurtful and divisive.

These were shocking comments, even from an administration that rips children from the arms of their parents and warehouses asylum seekers in facilities under inhumane conditions. We cannot let this moment pass without a forceful condemnation.

Need I remind the Speaker that this is the same President who defended the ``very fine people'' at the neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville, who denounced the ``s-hole countries'' in Africa and the Caribbean, who claimed that Haitian immigrants ``all have AIDS,'' and who declared that a Mexican American judge who was born in the United States had an ``inherent conflict of interest'' against him.

At every turn, Democrats have denounced offensive comments that emanate from the White House, but the silence coming from the other side of the aisle has been deafening. I hope that will finally change today.

This Congress must speak--loudly and with one voice--to condemn the President's words and, more importantly, to condemn the sentiments behind them.

The United States should be a beacon of hope and a refuge to those who need its protection, and it should welcome with open arms those who embody our values and ideals.

From our earliest days as a nation, we have welcomed people fleeing persecution and violence and those who seek economic opportunity and freedom in a land whose diversity is one of its greatest strengths. But the President has, instead, pursued a relentless campaign to build both a literal and a figurative wall around this Nation.

We must not turn our backs on our historic commitment to immigration and to refuge, and we must not fall prey to racial stereotypes and nativist fear-mongering that thinks that some immigrants who came here years ago are okay but those who come here today, because they are from so-called s-hole countries, are not okay.

It was Martin Luther King who told us: ``I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.''

The offensive words by the President undermine that dream. They contradict that dream.

Mr. Chair, I hope that all of my colleagues will join me in denouncing racism and in supporting this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. NADLER. Tlaib).

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Mr. NADLER. Jackson Lee).

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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I now yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the distinguished Speaker of the House.

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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker.

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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I move that the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) be permitted to proceed in order.

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