This archive report was first published on 16 July 2019.
On 15 July 2019, US President Donald Trump sparked a furore after suggesting four US Congresswomen, all US citizens, 'can leave' the country in a series of tweets widely condemned as racist.
Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib, known as The Squad, held a news conference on Monday, urging Americans 'not to take the bait'.
The four women, who are Democrats, were born in the US, Somalia, and the US, respectively. They have been critical of the Trump administration's policies, including its handling of migrant detentions on the US-Mexico border.
President Trump doubled down on his comments, verbally attacking the Congresswomen at the White House and later on Twitter. He claimed his comments were not racist, but rather a call to patriotism.
However, many have condemned the President's remarks as racist and xenophobic. Top Republicans have been less outspoken, with some turning the topic back on to the politics of the four women.
US Senator and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney called Mr Trump's remarks 'destructive, demeaning, and disunifying', but declined to say whether they were racist.
Lower-ranking members of the Republican Party were more direct, with Tim Scott, the only African-American Republican in the Senate, calling the President's words 'racially offensive', and Republican Congressman Will Hurd describing the comments as 'racist and xenophobic'.
