Trump continues social media attack on 'squad' of congresswomen

Posted at 7:41 AM, Jul 16, 2019
and last updated 2019-07-16 09:41:07-04

President Donald Trump continued his social media attacks on a "squad" of congresswomen Tuesday.

Trump doubled down on Sunday's controversial tweets, saying "If you come after the President, the Country, the Flag - he’s going to defend himself. What the squad doesn’t like is that Donald Trump is enforcing the very laws that are on the books that were put there by Congress.' Jason Chaffetz. Also, buy Jason’s great new book, POWER GRAB!"

The next tweet read: "Our Country is Free, Beautiful and Very Successful. If you hate our Country, or if you are not happy here, you can leave!"

Trump used racist language Sunday to attack a group of progressive Democratic congresswomen, falsely implying they weren't natural-born American citizens. Though Trump did not name who he was attacking in Sunday's tirade, a group of Democrats, who are women of color and have been outspoken about Trump's policies, held a press conference Monday condemning the president's words. The group of congresswomen includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley.

The congresswomen have been critical of the president's immigration policies. Trump's Sunday tirade came after the women condemned the conditions of border detention facilities.

Trump implied in the series of tweets that the congresswomen weren't born in America and sarcastically suggested, "they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came."

Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Pressley were all born in America. Omar was a Somali refugee who came to the U.S. as a child. All four women are U.S. citizens.

Later Sunday, Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter that the country she "come(s) from" and "swears to" is the US and suggested that Trump is "angry because you can't conceive of an America that includes us."

Trump defended the tweets Monday and Tuesday morning's tweets reflected the same message.

"If you're not happy here. Then you can leave," Trump said Monday at a press conference when addressing the tweets. "As far as I'm concerned if you hate our country if you're not happy here you can leave,"

CNN contributed to this report.