campaigning we hadn t seen before. this takes it to a different level. it suggest physical you re an american citizen but don t agree with the president s policies you should leave the country. divided not democrats are very upset about this, but even republicans are uncomfortable about it. the head of the house republican campaign committee said that that kind of language has no place in american politics. he disavowed it. but he didn t disavow the president. he said the president doesn t have a racist bone in his body. he s making a distinction between what the crowd was saying last night and the president s actions. jeff bennett, tell me of a strategy as you cover the white house. what is the playbook he s following? it started last week and built over the weekend and it s now something that is so contradictory to american values to american politics and it s nativism and it s being endorsed by white supremacists.
back to the countries from which they came. three were born in the united states and all four are u.s. citizens. the president said, quote, doesn t have a racist bone in his body but it is causing a growing divide among republicans as house minority leader kevin mccarthy denied the tweets were racist, while 36 of the 250 congressional republicans have spoken out to condemn the tweets in some way. joining us now, the washington post political reporter eugene scott. the president and his advisers are saying, this is america. love it or leave it sentiment. but here is the thing. he has never told white lawmakers who are critical of him to go back to their countries. so what ground does he possibly have to stand on? and one more thing, these congresswomen have been critical of the president personally and some of his administration s policies. they have not been critical of the united states of america. the president doesn t have any ground to stand on in that
welcome back to velshi and ruhle. president trump fighting back against criticism of his racist tweets against four congresswomen of color. he insists that he, quote, doesn t have a racist bone in his body and telling anyone who isn t happy with the state of the country, you can leave. just moments ago he again justified his comments by referring to the quote horrible things said by the congresswomen he targeted though not naming them. in a think piece, this is written. let s be clear. trump s language was absolutely and unquestionably racist despite his denials to the contrary. to imply that four women of color are unqualified to represent their constituents because they supposedly come from somewhere else despite all of them being u.s. citizens and all but one of them having been born in america, is literally