2020 RNC host city Charlotte condemns Trump’s ‘racist and xenophobic’ remarks

The Charlotte City Council voted Monday to condemn President Trump’s “racist and xenophobic” remarks attacking four minority congresswomen, marking a clear stance from the city that is gearing up to host him during the 2020 Republican National Convention.

The council voted 9-2 to approve a resolution decrying Trump’s language, saying it “only serves to stoke fear of others and perpetuate division everywhere based on ethnicity, religion, and/or race,” according to the Charlotte Observer.

“Charlotte should always be welcoming and inviting of people of diverse and different ethnicities and background, so long as those differences do not lead to personal insults or violent discourse,” the proposal read, adding that the council “strongly condemns all of President Donald Trump’s racist and xenophobic social media tweets and comments.” 

The resolution also cites Trump’s 2017 remarks that there were “very fine people” on both sides of the violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., as well as his reported comments that same year that 15,000 Haitian immigrants “all have AIDS.”

The council’s nine Democrats all supported the measure, while the two Republican members opposed.

The vote comes a week after Trump tweeted attacks on four minority, progressive congresswomen known as “the squad” — Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) — and told them to “go back to the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” despite all four being U.S. citizens.

Trump later said the group of politicians “hate our country,” harbor hate toward Jews and love terrorist groups, adding that they’re “free to leave” the U.S. if they choose.

Days after targeting the lawmakers on Twitter, Trump held a campaign rally in Greenville, N.C., where supporters chanted “send her back” in reference to Omar, who came to the U.S. as a Somali refugee as a child.

Democratic and some Republican lawmakers have condemned Trump for his statements, and the House voted last week to approve a resolution condemning the attacks. Trump has continued to insist that the tweets were not racist and that he doesn’t “have a racist bone in my body.”