Statewide Iowa — (RI) — Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is doing his best to straddle a very thin line as to whether President Trump’s tweet on Sunday about four Democratic women in Congress was racist.
Grassley was asked about the president’s tweet, which said the four black, Muslim or Hispanic women should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Grassley did not specifically call the comment racist, but did address the topic.
Democrats in the US House say they’ll pass a resolution condemning the president’s tweet as racist. Grassley, a Republican, is remaining on the fence.
Reports say Iowa’s other US Senator, Republican Joni Ernst, when asked Monday if she thought Trump’s comment was racist, said, “Yeah, I do.” Later, Ernst was asked by a CNN reporter to repeat her statement as to whether the comment was racist. She responded, “Uh, yeah. They’re American citizens,” and called the president’s comment “not constructive” and “not helpful.” The president’s tweet targeted New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib and Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. Omar is the only one of the four who was born outside the US. She came here as a refugee from Somalia as a child.
