Washington, July 18 (IANS) The US House of Representatives has killed a resolution to impeach US President Donald Trump over his “racist” tweets against four Democratic lawmakers.

The House on Wednesday voted 332-95 to table the bill, signifying a deeply divided Democratic Party on whether to impeach Trump, especially after Trump fired racially charged tweets at progressive lawmakers that evoked outcry from both sides of the aisle, Xinhua reported.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to persuade fellow Democratic lawmakers that impeaching Trump was not the best strategy, but frustration against the Trump administration over immigration policies, obstruction of justice allegations and personal attacks on political opponents gave a sizable portion of House Democrats enough reason to rebel against party leadership and back impeachment proceedings.

Trump on Sunday told a group of four ethnic minority female lawmakers to “go back” to the “places from which they came,” and later doubled down on his position in saying that the lawmakers “hate” the US.

The remarks received universal criticism from the Democratic Party, and many Republican lawmakers also said such statements were inappropriate.

The US House of Representatives voted Tuesday to condemn Trump for the remarks, with four Republican lawmakers joining the ranks of Democrats in supporting the bill.

According to the Pew Research Center, there are currently 52 voting members in the House and 16 members in the Senate who are immigrants or children of immigrants, most of them are Democrats. </s> (CNN) The House on Wednesday easily defeated an effort from a Texas Democrat to impeach President Donald Trump in a vote that highlighted the Democratic fissures when it comes to impeachment.

Rep. Al Green was able to force the vote under House rules — the first that Congress has taken related to impeachment since Democrats took control of the chamber this year — in what amounted to the most direct challenge yet to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's handling of impeachment.

The 332-95 vote divided Democrats, with 95 — a little more than 40% of the Democratic caucus -- voting against tabling it, or voting to keep it alive. There were 137 Democrats who joined all Republicans in voting to defeat the measure.

Green's decision to bring up his resolution presented a dilemma for impeachment supporters and moderate Democrats alike, as they're now on the record for their vote, even if Green's resolution was only focused on one issue — what he says is the President's "bigotry and racism" — out of many Democrats are wrestling with on whether to move forward on impeachment.

Green was able to force the House to take up his impeachment articles because it's considered a privileged resolution under the House rules. While any House member can introduce a privileged resolution on the floor — and Green introduced similar resolutions twice while Republicans were control — Pelosi has until now held her party back from doing so since Democrats took control of chamber, despite more than 80 members pushing for the start of an impeachment inquiry.

Republicans helped Democrats table the resolution to show bipartisan opposition to impeaching the President on the grounds laid out in the Green resolution, according to a senior GOP leadership aide. The White House wanted a strong vote to kill the resolution, a source familiar with White House thinking said.

Democrats debated how to handle Green's resolution, and they were considering a vote to delay consideration of the measure, according to a House leadership aide. The aide said that Democrats wanted to delay the vote to provide more time to educate the caucus on the resolution and the implications of it. But Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy stepped in and offered the motion to table the resolution, which is given primary consideration on the floor before a motion to postpone, according to a Republican aide.

Trump cheered the vote at his North Carolina rally Wednesday evening.

"I just heard that the US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly voted to kill the most ridiculous project I have ever been involved in. The resolution -- how stupid is that -- on impeachment," he said.

Ahead of the vote, Green dismissed calls from within his party to hold off on the resolution, which he introduced Tuesday evening, arguing that impeachment should follow Tuesday's House vote that condemned the President's racist tweets.

"I should not hold off, we should go forward as expeditiously as possible and we should do so because on yesterday we convicted the President ... The condemnation was a conviction. Today we have the opportunity to punish," Green said a reference to the resolution that passed Tuesday condemning racist language used by the President. "As a result of what we did yesterday, the President suffers no harm, he doesn't have to pay any fine, he's not going to lose his job. But today we have the opportunity to punish."

Democrats have been wrestling with the question of impeachment since taking control of the House, and now more than a third of House Democrats publicly support opening an impeachment inquiry. But Pelosi has resisted those efforts, saying they should not move forward with impeachment unless the public is on their side.

"With all the respect in the world for him, we have six committees that are working on following the facts in terms of any abuse of power, obstruction of justice and the rest that the President may have engaged in," Pelosi said. "That is the serious path that we are on, not that Mr. Green is not serious, but we'll deal with that on the floor."

Green brought up the impeachment resolution a week before special counsel Robert Mueller testifies publicly before the House, an event that many impeachment backers say will be key to sway the public — and skeptical lawmakers — on impeachment.

"Our focus should be on making sure that the Mueller hearing goes well," said House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries of New York.

Other House Democrats who support beginning an impeachment inquiry — and in some cases moving forward with articles of impeachment — said they would support Green's measure, even if they didn't agree with his decision to bring it up now.

"If I thought it was a really good idea I'd have done it myself," said Rep. Steve Cohen, a Tennessee Democrat who will support Green's resolution.

"I don't think this is the wisest moment," said Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Texas Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. "I mean, believe me, this is something that I wrestle with myself and I think that the president is unfit for office and so I need to think through it, but ... we have an important process ahead that we really need to follow."

But Green said he chose to move forward with his resolution because he thinks Congress should send Trump "a powerful message that this country will not tolerate bigotry, racism, hate, xenophobia, Islamophobia."

He noted that his impeachment resolution is not connected to Mueller or the findings of his investigation.

"You don't delay justice. The Mueller hearing has nothing to do with what we're doing now. The Mueller hearing is all about obstruction, this is about bigotry and racism and that racism that's been infused into policy," Green said.

In December 2017 and January 2018, Green also introduced privileged impeachment resolutions, which were both tabbed by the Republican-led House. The resolutions were killed in votes of 364-58 and 355-66, respectively, with a majority of Democrats joining Republicans to defeat them in both cases.

The number of Democrats voting with Green increased Wednesday to 95, up from 58 in the first vote and 66 in the second.

Even in defeat, Green said the vote was a positive development "because people are starting to understand this process."

And he said that he might bring impeachment resolutions to the floor in the future, potentially on other topics like obstruction.

"I don't want to ... but if it is not done by someone, I will," he said. "This resolution was the right thing to do ... the President at some point will be impeached."

This story has been updated with additional developments Wednesday. </s> The Latest: House derails move to impeach Trump for insults

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on a House Democrat's effort to impeachment President Donald Trump (all times local):

The House has derailed an effort by a maverick Democrat to impeach President Donald Trump because of his racial insults against four of the party's congresswomen of color.

Wednesday's vote to kill the proposal by Texas congressman Al Green was 332-95. Democrats opposed the effort by a 3-to-2 margin, while all Republicans voted to kill it.

Green's resolution did not mention special prosecutor Robert Mueller's unanswered questions about whether Trump obstructed his probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.

It was the third time the Houston lawmaker has forced the House to vote on removing Trump, but the first since Democrats took control of the chamber this year.

Many liberal Democrats have favored impeaching Trump. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has preferred a go-slow approach to develop a stronger case that could be more acceptable to the public.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says her chamber will derail a maverick Democrat's drive to impeach President Donald Trump.

Texas Rep. Al Green's resolution cites Trump's "racist" words this week urging Democratic congresswomen of color to go back to their native countries. And he says Trump is unfit to be president.

Pelosi and other party leaders worry that the vote needlessly forces vulnerable swing-district lawmakers to cast a perilous and divisive vote. Even if the House voted to impeach Trump now, the Republican-run Senate would be certain to acquit him.

Pelosi tells reporters about Green's resolution, "We'll get rid of all this right now."

Green's measure also risks widening the rift between liberal Democrats itching to oust Trump and Pelosi and others who want to first build stronger public support. </s> WASHINGTON — House Democrats rejected an attempt Wednesday to force a vote on impeaching President Donald Trump, showing that anger and frustration over the president’s racially-charged tweets and other actions have not yet convinced a majority to push for his removal.

The clash over impeachment came shortly before Democrats voted to hold in contempt Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for refusing to comply with congressional subpoenas seeking information about why the Trump administration wanted to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

It marked the first time the full House held members of Trump’s Cabinet in contempt since Democrats took over the chamber in January, and it came days after Trump announced he would give up his battle to use the census for what critics said was an effort to cut federal support for immigrant-heavy, largely Democratic districts.

The conflicting votes Wednesday thus reflected how far Democrats are willing to go — at least for now — as they confront Trump over an array of legal and political disputes, from getting access to his tax returns to oversight of security clearances at the White House.

They’ve struggled to pry documents and witnesses out of the Trump administration for congressional investigations, issuing subpoenas and going to court. But they’ve shied away from seeking impeachment, even while harshly denouncing the president.

On Tuesday the House passed a resolution, largely on party grounds, that “strongly condemned” Trump for telling four liberal members of Congress, all women of color and all U.S. citizens, to leave the country.

Although Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., strongly backed that resolution, she has pushed back against efforts to start impeachment proceedings against the president, in part because of concerns it would backfire against Democrats in the 2020 election.

Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, tried to force a vote on impeaching Trump anyway Wednesday, introducing a resolution that called him “unfit to be president” and calling for his removal. For procedural reasons, the House was forced to consider — or derail — the resolution within two days.

Trump has “brought the high office of the president of the United States in contempt” and “sown seeds of discord among the people of the United States,” Green wrote.

He cited Trump’s racist tweets telling the four lawmakers to “go back” to the countries “from which they came.”

The House could have voted to proceed with the measure, formally opening a debate on the floor over whether the president should be impeached, but Pelosi and other Democrats helped block the effort. The measure was tabled by a bipartisan vote of 332 to 95, effectively killing it.

Green said he considered his effort worthwhile because 95 Democrats voted against sidelining his resolution, an increase over the two times he has previously tried to force a vote on impeachment.

“Whether we got 95 or 5, the point is we have to make a statement to the American people that there are some among us who believe that this president is unfit and should be impeached,” he said after the vote.

“That’s the end of it,” he told reporters after landing in Greenville, N.C., for a political rally.

Despite the vote, impeachment is gaining traction among some Democrats and emerging as a divisive issue in the party. Several Democrats running for president, including Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have urged Congress to start impeachment proceedings.

Pelosi has warned that an impeachment probe could draw attention away from Democrats’ policy goals, energize Trump’s supporters and ultimately be thwarted by the Republican-controlled Senate, which almost certainly would not vote to convict the president.

Green’s resolution did not address the investigation led by former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who uncovered multiple episodes where Trump tried to limit or block the investigation into whether Trump or his aides assisted Russian interference in the 2016 election. Some 34 people ultimately were charged or indicted, but no Americans were accused of conspiring with the Russians.

Mueller is scheduled to appear on Capitol Hill next Wednesday and his testimony — his first since the redacted version of his report was released in mid-April — could spur other Democrats to call for impeachment.

Green’s resolution cited the House vote to censure Trump for his racist tweets about four freshmen lawmakers: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.

Ocasio-Cortez was among those who voted for Green’s resolution, and she described Trump’s presidency as an emergency that needs to be addressed by removing him from office.

“I think that each day that passes our democracy, our institutions, are imperiled,” she said.

The House later voted 230 to 198 to hold Barr and Ross in contempt for refusing to comply with subpoenas regarding next year’s census.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that the reason Ross had provided for adding the citizenship question — to help enforce the Voting Rights Act — was “contrived.” The justices blocked the Commerce Department from adding the question unless administration officials could provide a more compelling rationale.

Critics say the administration sought to suppress census turnout in Democratic-majority states like California, where large immigrant populations would be afraid to respond. That would lead to a drop in congressional seats and federal funds for those states.

The House Reform and Oversight Committee voted last month to advance the contempt resolution to the full House after Barr and Ross declined to share documents detailing the rationale for the citizenship question. The contempt citation will be automatically referred to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., for prosecution, but Barr oversees that office so it is unlikely to proceed. </s> President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Tuesday, July 16, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House easily killed a maverick Democrat’s effort Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump for his recent racial insults against lawmakers of color , in a vote that provided an early snapshot of just how divided Democrats are over trying to oust him in the shadow of the 2020 elections.

Democrats leaned against the resolution by Texas Rep. Al Green by about a 3-2 margin as the chamber killed the measure 332-95. The vote showed that so far, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been successful in her effort to prevent a Democratic stampede toward impeachment before additional evidence is developed that could win over a public that has so far been skeptical about ousting Trump.

Even so, the numbers also showed that the number of Democrats open to impeachment remains substantial. About two dozen more conversions would split the party’s caucus in half over an issue that could potentially dominate next year’s presidential and congressional campaigns.

“There’s a lot of grief, from a lot of different quarters,” Green, speaking to reporters after the vote, said of the reaction he’s received from colleagues. “But sometimes you just have to take a stand.”

Pelosi and other party leaders considered his resolution a premature exercise that needlessly forced vulnerable swing-district lawmakers to cast a perilous and divisive vote. It also risked deepening Democrats’ already raw rift over impeachment, dozens of the party’s most liberal lawmakers itching to oust Trump.

Recent polling has shown solid majorities oppose impeachment. Even if the Democratic-run House would vote to impeach Trump, the equivalent of filing formal charges, a trial by the Republican-led Senate would all but certainly acquit him, keeping him in office.

Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters earlier that six House committees are investigating Trump.

“That is the serious path we’re on,” she said.

Democrats are also eagerly awaiting next week’s scheduled public testimony to two House committees by special counsel Robert Mueller.

With Democrats preparing to defend their House majority in next year’s elections, Green’s measure put incumbents in closely divided districts in a difficult spot. Democrats owe their House majority to 39 challengers who won in 2018 in what had been GOP-held districts, places where moderate voters largely predominate.

“It’s not ideal for a lot of people to have to take that vote right now,” one of them, Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., said Wednesday of impeachment. She said “if and when” the House votes on impeaching Trump, it should happen when “we can make sure our constituents understand and can get behind” the move.

Democrats are also concerned that Republicans could use a failed impeachment vote to try taking the steam out of the continuing probes into Trump’s performance in office by arguing that the House had demonstrated it had no appetite for removing him from office.

“This is all they’ve ever wanted to do from the day of the election” in 2016, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a brief interview.

Green’s measure cites Trump’s recent “racist” comments imploring Democratic congresswomen of color to go back to their native countries. The House voted Tuesday largely along party lines to condemn those statements . His targets were Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

All are American and all but Omar were born in the U.S. They’ve also been among the party’s most outspoken advocates of impeachment.

Trump is “unfit to be President, unfit to represent the American values of decency and morality, respectability and civility, honesty and propriety, reputability and integrity, is unfit to defend the ideals that have made America great, unfit to defend liberty and justice for all,” Green’s resolution said.

Green’s resolution does not mention Mueller’s investigation into whether Trump’s 2016 campaign conspired with Russia to influence that year’s congressional election or whether the president obstructed Mueller’s probe.

Those threads have been why some Democrats have backed impeachment. More than 80 of the 235 House Democrats have said an impeachment inquiry is merited.

Mueller’s 448-page report detailed several episodes in which Trump tried to influence his investigation. Mueller said he could not exonerate Trump on obstruction and indicated in a May news conference that it was up to Congress to decide what to do.

Those who support an impeachment inquiry have argued that it would accelerate the process and bolster their arguments in court. Some Democrats are frustrated with the slow pace of their party’s investigations of the president. Democrats have had little success so far in their attempts to investigate beyond what Mueller detailed, as the White House has blocked several witnesses from answering questions.

Green’s measure was the third resolution to impeach Trump he has brought to the House floor since 2017. The eight-term veteran has spurned leadership entreaties to hold off in the past.

But while his first two efforts were symbolic because they came with Republicans controlling the House, this time Democrats run the chamber. </s> WASHINGTON (AP) — The House easily killed a maverick Democrat's effort Wednesday to impeach President Donald Trump for his recent racial insults against lawmakers of color , in a vote that provided an early snapshot of just how divided Democrats are over trying to oust him in the shadow of the 2020 elections.

Democrats leaned against the resolution by Texas Rep. Al Green by about a 3-2 margin as the chamber killed the measure 332-95. The vote showed that so far, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been successful in her effort to prevent a Democratic stampede toward impeachment before additional evidence is developed that could win over a public that has so far been skeptical about ousting Trump.

Even so, the numbers also showed that the number of Democrats open to impeachment remains substantial. About two dozen more conversions would split the party's caucus in half over an issue that could potentially dominate next year's presidential and congressional campaigns.

"There's a lot of grief, from a lot of different quarters," Green, speaking to reporters after the vote, said of the reaction he's received from colleagues. "But sometimes you just have to take a stand."

Pelosi and other party leaders considered his resolution a premature exercise that needlessly forced vulnerable swing-district lawmakers to cast a perilous and divisive vote. It also risked deepening Democrats' already raw rift over impeachment, dozens of the party's most liberal lawmakers itching to oust Trump.

Recent polling has shown solid majorities oppose impeachment. Even if the Democratic-run House would vote to impeach Trump, the equivalent of filing formal charges, a trial by the Republican-led Senate would all but certainly acquit him, keeping him in office.

Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters earlier that six House committees are investigating Trump.

"That is the serious path we're on," she said.

Democrats are also eagerly awaiting next week's scheduled public testimony to two House committees by special counsel Robert Mueller.

With Democrats preparing to defend their House majority in next year's elections, Green's measure put incumbents in closely divided districts in a difficult spot. Democrats owe their House majority to 39 challengers who won in 2018 in what had been GOP-held districts, places where moderate voters largely predominate.

"It's not ideal for a lot of people to have to take that vote right now," one of them, Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., said Wednesday of impeachment. She said "if and when" the House votes on impeaching Trump, it should happen when "we can make sure our constituents understand and can get behind" the move.

Democrats are also concerned that Republicans could use a failed impeachment vote to try taking the steam out of the continuing probes into Trump's performance in office by arguing that the House had demonstrated it had no appetite for removing him from office.

"This is all they've ever wanted to do from the day of the election" in 2016, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a brief interview.

Green's measure cites Trump's recent "racist" comments imploring Democratic congresswomen of color to go back to their native countries. The House voted Tuesday largely along party lines to condemn those statements . His targets were Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

All are American and all but Omar were born in the U.S. They've also been among the party's most outspoken advocates of impeachment.

Trump is "unfit to be President, unfit to represent the American values of decency and morality, respectability and civility, honesty and propriety, reputability and integrity, is unfit to defend the ideals that have made America great, unfit to defend liberty and justice for all," Green's resolution said.

Green's resolution does not mention Mueller's investigation into whether Trump's 2016 campaign conspired with Russia to influence that year's congressional election or whether the president obstructed Mueller's probe.

Those threads have been why some Democrats have backed impeachment. More than 80 of the 235 House Democrats have said an impeachment inquiry is merited.

Mueller's 448-page report detailed several episodes in which Trump tried to influence his investigation. Mueller said he could not exonerate Trump on obstruction and indicated in a May news conference that it was up to Congress to decide what to do.

Those who support an impeachment inquiry have argued that it would accelerate the process and bolster their arguments in court. Some Democrats are frustrated with the slow pace of their party's investigations of the president. Democrats have had little success so far in their attempts to investigate beyond what Mueller detailed, as the White House has blocked several witnesses from answering questions.

Green's measure was the third resolution to impeach Trump he has brought to the House floor since 2017. The eight-term veteran has spurned leadership entreaties to hold off in the past.

But while his first two efforts were symbolic because they came with Republicans controlling the House, this time Democrats run the chamber. </s> President Donald Trump has an established reputation as a polarising figure with his bigotry becoming an established part of American public discourse since the days of his first presidential campaign where he issued slurs against Mexicans and refused to disavow the endorsement of the Ku Klux Klan. Yesterday, the House of Representatives tabled a vote on the topic of Mr Trump’s impeachment brought by the congressman Al Green of Texas. This move by Mr Green was a result of Representatives’ claims that racist tweets made by Mr Trump on Sunday directed at four congresswomen of colour calling for them to “go back” where they came from brought “disgrace” to the presidential office. So is it possible the President could be impeached as a result of these racist tweets and what the latest odds on this happening?

On Sunday, Mr Trump, who has a Twitter following of 62 million, shared a three-tweet thread where he accused four female Democrats of “viciously” criticising him and the USA. The outburst came after three of the women had spoken out about the conditions of migrant detention centres they had visited, describing alleged mistreatment happening “under American flags”. His comments sparked racial controversy over the weekend when he called for the four women of colour to “go back” to where they came from.

He tweeted: “So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly...... “....and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how.... “....it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!”

Although the president did not specifically identify the four women, it was clear he was referring to a group of women known as “the squad”. The group is made up of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley, all of whom were born in the US, and Ilhan Omar, who came to America as a refugee at the age of 12. Following these controversial tweets, the women and many others in the US accused Mr Trump of being racist. Many have called for the impeachment of the 45th US president claiming his actions brought “the high office of the President of the United States in contempt, ridicule, disgrace and disrepute”.

In his resolution drafted by Mr Green, he said Mr Trump had: “By his statements brought the high office of the President of the United States in contempt, ridicule, disgrace, and disrepute, has sown seeds of discord among the people of the United States, has demonstrated that he is unfit to be President, and has betrayed his trust as President of the United States to the manifest injury of the people of the United States, and has committed a high misdemeanor in office”. However, the House of Representatives killed Mr Green’s attempt to impeach Donald Trump, with 137 Democrats joining Republicans to table a vote on articles of impeachment. A total of 95 Democrats voted to advance the impeachment resolution, but “tabling” this impeachment article means it is, in effect, dead. While many Democrats said they agreed with the sentiment, the caucus followed the lead of the House speaker Nancy Pelosi who said multiple investigations into the president, his associates and their activities should be played out before impeachment should be considered.

The vote yesterday provided an early snapshot of how divided Democrats are regarding ousting Mr Trump, with members of congress split over whether it is necessary or others who believe it could backfire and in fact galvanize Republican support increasing his chances of re-election. This means while Mr Trump will not be impeached immediately, the prospect is still possible once the ongoing investigations into the current US president and alleged misconduct. According to Ladbrokes, the odds of Mr Trump being impeached during his first time are 3/1 odds, compared to 1/5 odds that he will not. While it still looks unlikely he will be impeached, these odds have dropped over the past few days as the racism row rages on 10/3 into 3/1. </s> person well, a hazy mechanism to fog up the lenses of law makers. When President Donald Trump needs an air-wave filling distraction, a bilious splurge of interest in the blogosphere, he is always happy to lob a grenade of 280 characters or so. His targets and recipients oblige in an unsettling dance. Speeches are made, press galleries filled and resolutions submitted to Congress.

Trump’s last round of fired remarks found their targets in Representatives Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. They were not mentioned by name, but presumption can be all powerful. “So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run.” Then came his none-too constructive suggestion: “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

While his remarks against “The Squad” are in characteristic poor taste, not to mention inaccurate (three of the representatives were born in the United States) they remain characteristic, brutish panto and all part of the boundless show that is Trumpism. They are not designed to convert the unconverted or convince the unsure with rhetorical sharpness or insight. Anti-Trump and pro-Trump lines are firmed, concretely paved for the next election. The issue, till then, is merely to occupy space with venom and fury, to divide and hope that the house will fall when the votes are tallied.

Such space of distraction assumes a few forms, all ultimately lending false credibility to incendiary smatterings. Words are broken down, assumptions unpacked. Were his words racist? Yes, claim some. Did he articulate a substantive vision? Most certainly, go others. (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi deemed them “xenophobic”.) For Omar, Trump’s words are programmatic, “a blatantly racist attack on four duly elected members of the United States House of Representatives, all of whom are women of colour. This is an agenda of white nationalists.”

President Barack Obama’s chief election strategist David Axelrod, similarly sees a program, albeit encased in a trap, with Trump wanting “to raise the profile of his targets, drive Dems to defend them and make them emblematic of the entire party. It’s a cold, hard strategy.” The none-too-implicit suggestion here is that the quartet risk being hung out to dry come 2020 by the party strategists.

In solidarity, the four representatives expressed their marshalled outrage, all the time attempting to give a sense of elevated fury to the garbage gilded twittersphere while denying its enduring relevance. Omar fell for the laid bait on the issue of impeachment, claiming on Monday that “it is time for us to impeach this president” having “openly” violated his constitutional oath.

The quartet managed to get up a House resolution, passed by 240 to 187 votes, condemning Trump for “racist comments that have legitimised fear and hatred of New Americans and people of colour”. The resolution, for good measure, also praised the value immigrants had brought to the United States. Trump ventured his own view. “I don’t have a racist bone in my body.”

The show delighted commentators dazzled by the fireworks. It was seen as historic, because it was the first time in over a century a President had received such a vote of disapproval. But it was true polarising fodder for the Trump administration, bound to inflict indigestion for anybody keen to seek a united stance. Division reigned; disorder prevailed and the representatives stuck to firmly etched party lines, with the exception of four Republicans who crossed the floor.

Democrat Representative John Lewis, Democrat from Georgia, spoke of knowing racism when seeing it and feeling it “and at the highest level of government”. Pelosi claimed that to not condemn Trump’s words “would be a shocking rejection of our values and a shameful abdication of our oath of office to protect the American people.”

Representative Dan Meuser, Republican of Pennsylvania, was ill-tempered in response, insisting that the whole show had been a “ridiculous slander” which did a “disservice to our nation”. “What has really happened here is that the president and his supporters have been forced to endure months of allegations of racism.”

Republicans slanted their attack on procedural improprieties, less on the nature of Trump’s words than the behaviour of their Democrat colleagues, who they regarded as impugning the motives of the President. A failed effort was made to excise any suggestive words from the House Speaker’s record in accordance with the Jefferson Manual, a text authored by Thomas Jefferson in 1801. Quaintly if revealingly, the manual states that “references to racial or other discrimination on the part of the President are not in order.” Appalled by the bickering and disagreement, Representative Emanuel Cleaver II, Democrat of Missouri, banged the gavel and took his leave. “We just want to fight.”

While the president versus squad show was boiling over, an arguably more significant resolution failed to gather the numbers. Sponsored by Representative Al Green, Democrat from Texas, the measure seeking to impeach Trump in light of his comments on the four representatives, failed by 332 votes to 95. Bigotry, argued Green, was “a high crime and misdemeanour.”

The president, while publically condemning the exercise as “time consuming”, would have been heartened: the squabbling Democrats may well have been united in their rebuke of the president’s tweets, but such consensus was momentary. In Pelosi’s words, “We have six committees working on following the facts in terms of any abuse of power, obstruction of justice and the rest that the president may have engaged in”. With unwitting comedic effect, the House Speaker found herself claiming that to be “the serious path we’re on – not that Mr Green is not serious, but we’ll deal with that on the floor.” And dealt with it they did, putting the pro-impeachment Democrats back into their crammed box. </s> THE US HOUSE of Representatives has voted to formally condemn Donald Trump for his attacks on four Democratic congresswomen, describing his tweets as racist.

The measure, in itself, has no legal ramifications for the president and the vote was mostly partisan with Democrats backing the rebuke en masse.

Top Republican leaders rallied around Trump, but four members of the president’s party voted with the 235 Democrats to condemn him for “racist comments that have legitimised and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of colour”.

One independent congressman also supported the measure, which takes aim at Trump’s weekend tweets telling a group of progressive Democratic congresswomen of colour to “go back” to other countries.

The resolution also takes the president to task for “referring to immigrants and asylum seekers as ‘invaders’”.

It further criticises him for “saying that Members of Congress who are immigrants (or those of our colleagues who are wrongly assumed to be immigrants) do not belong in Congress or in the United States of America”.

Democrats hold a majority in the 435-member House but are outnumbered by Republicans in the Senate, where the resolution is unlikely to be considered.

The four congresswomen – all but one of whom were born in the US – are of Hispanic, Arab, Somali and African-American descent.

Trump has stuck by the provocative comments.

“Our Country is Free, Beautiful and Very Successful. If you hate our Country, or if you are not happy here, you can leave!” the president tweeted yesterday.

Democratic leaders denounced Trump’s remarks, and rallied around the congresswomen – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley.

Omar is the only one born outside the United States.

Slamming the “so-called vote” as a “Democrat con game,” Trump urged Republicans not to “show ‘weakness’ and fall into their trap.”

“Those Tweets were NOT Racist. I don’t have a Racist bone in my body!” Trump said.

“This should be a vote on the filthy language, statements and lies told by the Democrat Congresswomen, who I truly believe, based on their actions, hate our Country,” he wrote.

“Nancy Pelosi tried to push them away, but now they are forever wedded to the Democrat Party,” Trump added, in a jab at the House speaker who has had a tenuous relationship with the four congresswomen.

Speaking on the House floor prior to the vote, Pelosi said: “Every single member of this institution, Democratic and Republican, should join us in condemning the president’s racist tweets.

“I know racism when I see it. I know racism when I feel it. And at the highest level of government, there’s no room for racism,” Representative John Lewis, an American civil rights icon, said in remarks on the House floor.

Trump’s repeated attacks appear to be aimed at galvanising his mostly white electoral base ahead of the 2020 presidential vote.

Ocasio-Cortez dismissed Trump’s denial that he is a racist.

“You’re right, Mr President – you don’t have a racist bone in your body,” she tweeted. “You have a racist mind in your head, and a racist heart in your chest.”

She also took aim at Republican lawmakers who voted against the resolution, telling CBS News that “they could not bring themselves to have the basic human decency to vote against the statement that the president made.”

Trump meanwhile took to Twitter last night to hail “how unified the Republican Party was on today’s vote”.

While some Republican members of Congress have condemned Trump’s remarks, House Republican leaders closed ranks behind the president.

“This is all about politics,” said House Republican minority leader Representative Kevin McCarthy of California.

Senator Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, said “the president is not a racist”.

Immediately after the House vote a Democratic congressman, Al Green of Texas, filed articles of impeachment against Trump.

Dozens of other Democratic members of the House have reportedly called for an impeachment inquiry to be opened against the president but Pelosi has said she does not favour such a move at the moment.
The U.S. House of Representatives votes 332–95 to table an impeachment-related measure against U.S. President Donald Trump.