CBS’s Gayle King asks Pressley whether calling Trump ‘occupant’ of the Oval Office is respectful

CBS host Gayle King on Tuesday pressed Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) on her use of the word “occupant” to describe President Trump’s position in the White House.

“We can talk about and spin out on hate, about hateful words which are a predictable prompt by the occupant of the White House,” Pressley said in the “CBS This Morning” interview, referring to the president’s Twitter attacks earlier in the week on herself and the three other freshmen congresswomen in the interview.

{mosads}”And I call him that not because I don’t have respect for the Oval Office,” she added. Pressley also used the phrase in her press conference response to Trump’s tweets on Monday.

“It sounds like you don’t have respect for the Oval Office when you call the president of the United States the occupant,” King responded.

“No, because he is only occupying the space. He does not embody the principles, the responsibility, the grace, the integrity of a true president,” Pressley told King. “I’m not dishonoring the office. He does everyday.”

WATCH: Rep. @AyannaPressley says President Trump is the “occupant” of this White House. “He is only occupying the space. He does not embody the principles, the responsibility, the grace, the integrity of a true president… I’m not dishonoring the office. He does everyday.” pic.twitter.com/aSetGCHN0p

— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) July 17, 2019

Her comments come after a string of tweets from the president this week that Democrats and some Republicans called “racist.” They directed Pressley and three other minority Democrats — Somalian-born Rep. Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) — to “go back” to the “crime-infested” countries where they were born.

Trump’s tweets were condemned as racist in a House resolution passed Tuesday largely along party lines.