Schiff: Trump ‘has decided racism is good politics’

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Sunday said that President Trump’s attacks on four progressive congresswomen of color is part of a strategy to embrace racism as a political strategy.

“I think tragically the president has decided racism is good politics,” Schiff said on CBS’s “Face The Nation.”

{mosads}“There’s a reason he keeps returning to attacking these women of color and the rhetoric that he uses that. The crowd’s ugly, racist chant didn’t materialize out of nothing: it came from the president’s own tweet and words and incendiary rhetoric.”

“This wasn’t a one off either, this was the same president who said there we good people on both sides of a neo-Nazi rally. This is who he is and he thinks it’s a winning political strategy.” 

THIS MORNING on @FaceTheNation – @RepAdamSchiff responds to @realdonaldtrump’s tweets: “I think…tragically the president has decided racism is good politics.” pic.twitter.com/Hyu9iMzCcU

— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) July 21, 2019

President Trump last Sunday sparked backlash by telling the four first-year lawmakers — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.) — to “go back” to the where they came from before criticizing U.S. policies. All four are U.S. citizens.

He has since doubled and tripled down on the remarks, saying the four progressive women of color “hate America.”

The House on Tuesday voted to condemn Trump’s tweets as racist. Four GOP lawmakers, as well as Independent Rep. Justin Amash (Mich.), joined every Democrat in approving the resolution.

Several Democrats, like Schiff, have said the tweets were intentionally meant to stoke anti-immigrant sentiment among white voters ahead of the 2020 election.