Trump Lies About Congresswomen Of Color Referring To 'Evil Jews'

President Donald Trump on Friday continued his attack on four progressive congresswomen of color by falsely claiming they had talked about “evil Jews.”

Speaking to reporters in front of the White House, the president accused Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota of being racist and anti-Semitic.

“You know what is racist to me? When somebody goes out and says the horrible things about our country, the people of our country, that are anti-Semitic, that hate everybody, that speak with scorn and hate — that to me is really a very dangerous thing,” Trump said.

Reporters also inquired what first lady Melania Trump thinks about the ongoing feud between her husband and the four congresswomen.

“The first lady feels very strongly about our country,” the president replied. “The first lady thinks it’s horrible what they said about Israel and horrible what they said about our country, these congresswomen. They cannot call our country and our people garbage. They can’t be anti-Semitic. They can’t talk about evil Jews, which is what they say, evil Jews. That’s what the first lady thinks.”

CNN ’s fact-checker Daniel Dale was quick to point out what appeared to be blatant lies in Trump’s comments.

“None of them have said that,” Dale tweeted, referring to Trump’s claim about “evil Jews.” 

Dale added: “Omar once tweeted that Israel has committed ‘evil doings.’”

The president has received backlash from both sides of the aisle in recent days for perpetuating racist stereotypes by saying the congresswomen should “go back” to other countries after they criticized his administration’s policies. All four women are American citizens. Only Omar was born outside of the U.S. Her family immigrated to the U.S. from Somalia when she was a child.

Asked about the obvious racist undertones of his comments, as well as the troubling chants of “Send her back!” that emerged during a campaign rally earlier this week, Trump has largely tried to reframe the narrative around the supposed racism of the congresswomen.