Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib spoke out on Saturday to claim that President Donald Trump is “scared” of her and her “Squad,” which includes herself as well as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Ayanna Pressley.
“It’s been very clear to me, especially this last week, that he’s scared of us,” Tlaib said, according to Fox News [1]. “He’s afraid of women of color … because we’re not afraid of him and we’re not afraid to speak up and say that we have a white supremacist in the White House who has a hate agenda. He’s afraid because we have a real agenda for the American people.”
Trump has frequently sparred with the four lawmakers ever since they entered Congress back in January. Most recently, things got heated between them when Tlaib and Omar, who are frequent critics of Israel, were blocked from traveling to the country. Though Israel later granted permission to Tlaib to visit her Palestinian grandmother, she decided that she did not want to abide by the restrictions placed on her about promoting boycotts of Israel.
“She said I’m her dream manifested,” Tlaib said of her grandmother during an emotional press conference. “I’m her free bird so why would I come back and be caged and bow down?”
Sign Petition: Remove Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee [2]
Trump, however, was not having any of it.
“Sorry, I don’t buy Rep. Tlaib’s tears. I have watched her violence, craziness and, most importantly, WORDS, for far too long,” the president tweeted afterwards. “Now tears? She hates Israel and all Jewish people. She is an anti-Semite. She and her 3 friends are the new face of the Democrat Party. Live with it!”
Sorry, I don’t buy Rep. Tlaib’s tears. I have watched her violence, craziness and, most importantly, WORDS, for far too long. Now tears? She hates Israel and all Jewish people. She is an anti-Semite. She and her 3 friends are the new face of the Democrat Party. Live with it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 2019 [3]
In her new interview, Tlaib claimed that the Squad’s radical ideas – which include Medicare-for-all, a Green New Deal, and higher taxes on the rich — are more popular with Americans than Trump’s policies.
“He can bring it because we actually have policies that came from the people,” she said of Trump. “What he’s doing by choosing us four as his target is trying to distract folks from the fact that more people are living in poverty than ever, because he has failed as a president.”