Condemning the false, inflammatory, and racially offensive statements made by the President of the United States regarding four women of color who are duly elected Members of the One Hundred Sixteenth Congress.

IV 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. RES. 494 Condemning the false, inflammatory, and racially offensive statements made by the President of the United States regarding four women of color who are duly elected Members of the One Hundred Sixteenth Congress. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES JULY 16, 2019 Ms. JACKSON LEE (for herself and Mr. COHEN) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary RESOLUTION Condemning the false, inflammatory, and racially offensive statements made by the President of the United States regarding four women of color who are duly elected Mem- bers of the One Hundred Sixteenth Congress. Whereas, on November 6, 2018, in an election widely re- garded as a referendum on the performance and dis- approval of the administration of President Donald J. Trump, the American people voted to vest control of the House of Representatives in the Democratic Party to re- store the system of checks and balances designed by the Framers in 1787 in Philadelphia; Whereas the Representatives elected to the One Hundred Six- teenth Congress comprise the most diverse class in Amer- ican history with respect to its racial, ethnic, and reli- VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:59 Jul 17, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR494.IH HR494 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HRES 494 IH gious composition, and also includes the largest contin- gent of female Representatives and the most Members ever of the LGBTQ community; Whereas among the cohort of the 40 Representatives first elected to the Congress in the November 2018 election are several whose membership is historic, including the Representative for the 7th District of Massachusetts, the first African-American woman elected from the Common- wealth of Massachusetts; the Representative from the 13th District of Michigan, the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress; the Representative from the 14th District of New York, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress; and the Representative from the 5th District of Minnesota, the first Somali-American elected to Congress; Whereas in the discharge of their official duties as Members of Congress, the aforementioned Representatives traveled to the southern border of the United States to observe the living conditions and treatment received by migrants and refugees seeking asylum in the United States who are currently being held in detention facilities, some con- sisting of nothing more than tent villages cordoned off under highways; Whereas the migrants and refugees being detained sought refuge in the United States for the same reasons as the tens of millions who came before them, in this century and the last, from this continent and from every other and from all corners of the globe; Whereas the migrants and refugees being detained sought refuge in the United States to be free of fear and hunger, to better their condition, to begin their world anew, and to give their children a chance for a better life, seeking VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:59 Jul 17, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR494.IH HR494 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HRES 494 IH to leave the pain of the Old World for the hope and promise of the New World; Whereas upon their return to the capital, the aforementioned Representatives reported their shock and horror regard- ing the inhumane conditions to which detainees were being subjected by the U.S. Customs and Border Protec- tion at a public hearing of a standing committee of the House of Representatives; Whereas, on July 14, 2019, the President of the United States reacted to the criticism of his administration’s treatment of detainees by the aforementioned Represent- atives in a series of tweets that questioned their loyalty to the United States and implied that the circumstances of their birth gave them no right to exercise the respon- sibilities and privileges of duly elected Members of Con- gress; Whereas the President tweeted about the aforementioned Representatives: ‘‘So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total ca- tastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly . . . and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came’’; Whereas the President’s statements are false, inflammatory, and racially offensive and unbecoming the Nation’s chief executive; VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:59 Jul 17, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR494.IH HR494 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HRES 494 IH Whereas the recent statements of the President are inac- curate and offensive but consistent with prior statements he has made to stoke division, discord, and disharmony among the American people; Whereas the current President of the United States bur- nished his political reputation by claiming falsely for more than five years that his predecessor was born in Kenya and not the United States and thus was an illegit- imate President; Whereas the current President of the United States launched his 2016 campaign for the Presidency said of persons from Mexico seeking to immigrate to the United States: ‘‘They‘re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.’’; Whereas the current President of the United States claimed that a Hispanic Federal jurist could not preside over a court proceeding to which he was a defendant accused of civil fraud because ‘‘He’s a Mexican’’; Whereas in January 2018, the current President of the United States is reported to have inquired of his advi- sors: ‘‘Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?’’, referring to persons from coun- tries in Africa, the Caribbean, and Central and South America; Whereas, on August 15, 2017, the current President of the United States said he regarded as some ‘‘very fine peo- ple’’ the neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and Ku Klux Klansmen who descended on the peaceful community of Charlottesville, Virginia, to advocate racism and who were met by peaceful counterprotesters; VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:59 Jul 17, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR494.IH HR494 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HRES 494 IH Whereas in his continuous and determined effort to exacer- bate ethnic tensions and racial divisions in the body poli- tic, the current President of the United States is reveal- ing himself to be an unwitting instrument of the plan hatched in Moscow by Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin to interfere in the 2016 Presidential cam- paign to help elect his preferred candidate and sow dis- cord and division among the American people; and Whereas statements and actions of the current President of the United States demean the Office he holds and falls short of the standard set by the 16th President, whose administration was devoted to unity, healing, and ending racial division and who famously foretold in his March 4, 1861, Inaugural Address the reasons why the efforts of the current President of the United States are destined to fail: ‘‘We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.’’: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 1 (1) strongly condemns the false, inflammatory, 2 and racially offensive statements made by the Presi- 3 dent of the United States regarding four women of 4 color who are duly elected Members of the One Hun- 5 dred Sixteenth Congress; 6 (2) calls upon all Americans to celebrate the 7 ethnic, racial, and religious diversity that has made 8 the United States the leader of the community of 9 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:59 Jul 17, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR494.IH HR494 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HRES 494 IH nations and the beacon of hope and inspiration to 1 oppressed persons everywhere; and 2 (3) encourages all persons in the United States 3 to cherish and exercise the rights, privileges, and re- 4 sponsibilities guaranteed by the Constitution of the 5 United States. 6 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:59 Jul 17, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HR494.IH HR494 lotter on DSKBCFDHB2PROD with BILLS