ABOVE VIDEO: US House passes resolution to officially condemn Trump's 'racist comments'
White Republican Congressman Mike Kelly has defended US President Donald Trump’s recent racially charged tweet storm, by claiming he himself is a ‘person of colour’.
Earlier this week, Trump took aim at Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib in a series of tweets, telling the women to ‘go back where they came from’.
GOP Congressman Kelly defended the outburst when Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the tweets racist on the House floor.
You know, they talk about people of colour. I'm a person of colour. I'm white. I'm an Anglo Saxon.
People say things all the time, but I don't get offended,” Kelly told Vice News.
“With a name like Mike Kelly you can’t be from any place else but Ireland.”
Kelly made the comments as the House was voting on a resolution to officially categorise Trump’s words as racist.
The House voted 240-187 to denounce Trump’s tweets as racist. The 240 votes included not just Democratic opponents, but four members of his own party.
When asked for his view of the tweets, Kelly doubled down on his defence of the President.
“He does not offend me,” he said. “Are some people offended? I’m sure. But there’s people offended no matter what he says. If he says ‘good morning,’ they’re unhappy about it.”
Other members of the Republican Party have backed the President’s remarks. Senator Andy Harris insisted on Monday that the tweets were “obviously not racist”.
“Look, ask the president what he meant by it, but clearly it’s not a racist comment. He could have meant go back to the district they came from, to the neighborhood they came from,” Harris said.
However, in his tweets, Trump clearly refers to “countries” and not locations within the United States.
The President himself defended his comments in a press conference earlier in the week, doubling down on his “love it or leave it” stance.
“If you’re not happy in the US, if you complain all the time, very simply ― you can leave. You can leave right now,” the president said.
Three of the Congresswomen that Trump aimed his tweets were born in the US and all four are American citizens.
