Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shared a report in the Washington Post with her nearly 5 million Twitter followers Wednesday, salivating at an assertion that President Trump’s tweets about her and other people of color could doom his policy proposals.
“The good news in getting Trump to explicitly vocalize his racism,” she tweeted Wednesday, “instead of hiding it behind vague suggestions, is that his words can be used by courts as evidence of his motivation.”
The Washington Post report laid out how Trump’s tweets “could help persuade judges to block policies he claims are crucial to his agenda, particularly on immigration, on the grounds of racial or ethnic animus.”
Over the weekend, Trump suggested that AOC and three other congresswomen — three of whom were born in the United States and all of whom are American citizens — should “go back” to their countries of origin.
“All I’m saying is if they don’t like it, they can leave,” Trump doubled down on Monday.
The same day, AOC and her liberal caucus, dubbed “the squad,” held a news conference during which they painted Trump as a bigot and bully who is relentlessly attacking them for political gain.
His words toward them, they said, are directly in line with his policies on immigration law in America.
The good news in getting Trump to explicitly vocalize his racism, instead of hiding it behind vague suggestions, is that his words can be used by courts as evidence of his motivation.
AKA his tweets may be used to dismantle his own immigration policies ?https://t.co/bKrZewfYN7
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 17, 2019
In an interview early Wednesday, AOC said, “There is no bottom to the barrel of vitriol that will be used and weaponized to stifle those who want to advance rights for all people in the United States.”
The war of words between Trump and “the squad” comes amid intense scrutiny placed on conditions at immigration detention facilities along the southern border and bipartisan acknowledgment of a humanitarian crisis there. The Trump administration this week said it would tighten restrictions on migrants attempting to enter the United States to seek asylum, a move likely to be challenged in court.
It’s one example of a policy that could be sunk by Trump’s rhetoric toward minority communities.
“I don’t think these comments are enough in and of themselves, but they can be helpful to help establish a long record of xenophobia and bigotry towards people of color and people he perceives as immigrants, which is important when you can connect the dots to his changes in immigration law,” an immigration lawyer told the Post.
But AOC suggested Trump has already doomed his own agenda.
“AKA his tweets may be used to dismantle his own immigration policies,” she said.
