A Republican lawmaker defended President Trump’s comments telling liberal congresswomen to “go back” to the countries they came from, arguing that the president could have meant they should return to their congressional districts.
Maryland Rep. Andy Harris said Trump’s comments toward the minority congresswomen were “obviously not racist” and his critics and the media were referring to them as such only because they disagreed with him.
“Look, ask the president what he meant by it. Clearly, it’s not a racist comment,” Harris told WBAL on Monday. “He could have meant go back to the district they came from, to the neighborhood they came from.”
“They all didn’t come from foreign countries, so you have to presume it’s not a country,” he said.
Of the group that includes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib, only Omar was born outside of the United States.
Trump tweeted this weekend that the congresswomen “who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe” should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
