Ayanna Pressley Blasts 'Bigoted Man' Trump For 'Lynching' Tweet
BOSTON (CBS/AP) – Rep. Ayanna Pressley called President Donald Trump a "bigoted man" Tuesday after his latest tweet about impeachment. The president compared the process to a "lynching."
"So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights," Trump tweeted. "All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here - a lynching."
Lynchings, or killing someone by hanging, historically were mostly used by whites against black men in the South beginning in the late 19th century, according to the NAACP.
"Haven't even had coffee yet & the occupant of the WH, the bigoted man who called for the execution of the exonerated 5, is tossing the word 'lynching' around," Pressley tweeted, referring to the case of the Central Park Five. "Lord give me the strength to not take the bait but hold this man accountable for every single thing he says and does."
Pressley is a member of the "squad" that includes fellow Congresswomen of color Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. Trump has called them a "very racist group of troublemakers."
Pressley suggested that Trump's latest inflammatory comments are a way to shift focus away from Tuesday's testimony of a top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine who raised concerns about withholding millions of dollars in military aid to the country.
Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren said it was "beyond disgraceful" for Trump to bring up lynching.
Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark called his use of the word "grotesque."
"It is particularly grotesque for Trump, who defends racial discrimination, courts white supremacists, and targets people of color, to invoke lynching to describe a constitutional impeachment inquiry," she tweeted.
(© Copyright 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
