Trump: ‘I Don’t Buy Rep. Tlaib’s Tears’

Trump: ‘I Don’t Buy Rep. Tlaib’s Tears’
(L)-President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on the White House South Lawn in Washington on Aug. 7, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) (R)-Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) at a press conference on the Capitol on July 15, 2019. (Holly Kellum/NTD)
Zachary Stieber
8/20/2019
Updated:
8/20/2019
President Donald Trump said that he doesn’t “buy” the tears shed by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) during a press conference held by Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Aug. 19.

“Sorry, I don’t buy Rep. Tlaib’s tears. I have watched her violence, craziness and, most importantly, WORDS, for far too long. Now tears?” Trump wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

Tlaib and Omar were barred from visiting Israel but the Israeli government agreed to let Tlaib into the West Bank to see her elderly grandmother. After agreeing to not promote the controversial Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement in order to gain access to the area, Tlaib reversed her thinking and said she would not visit her family.

Tlaib teared up while speaking Monday and her voice broke at one point as she described the plight of Palestinians in land held by Israel, which took control of the West Bank during a war in 1967.

Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), left, and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) hold a press conference in St. Paul, Minnesota on Aug. 19, 2019. (Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)
Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), left, and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) hold a press conference in St. Paul, Minnesota on Aug. 19, 2019. (Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)
Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), right, and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) hold a press conference in St. Paul, Minnesota on Aug. 19, 2019. (Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)
Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), right, and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) hold a press conference in St. Paul, Minnesota on Aug. 19, 2019. (Adam Bettcher/Getty Images)

“As a young girl, visiting Palestine to see my grandparents and extended family, I watched as my mother had to go through dehumanizing checkpoints even though she was a United States citizen and a proud American,” she said. “I was there when my sity [grandmother] was in a terrible car accident and my cousins and I cried so she could have to the best hospitals, which were in Jerusalem.”

Trump added in his missive that he believes Tlaib, who along with Omar has made a series of statements critics say are antisemitic, “is an anti-Semite.”

“She hates Israel and all Jewish people. She is an anti-Semite. She and her 3 friends are the new face of the Democrat Party. Live with it!” he wrote.

Trump was referring to the so-called “Squad,” which also includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.).

The group has been called out by Trump since mid-July, when he condemned them over their repeated criticisms of his administration and Americans and their open support for socialism.

The representatives have fought back, claiming Trump is racist and vowing to impeach him over unspecified charges.

Neither lawmaker has responded to Trump as of this writing.

But both said he was wrong for supporting Israel’s decision to bar them over their support for BDS, arguing they were going to see “the occupation” on the ground for themselves as members of Congress.

“It is unfortunate that Prime Minister Netanyahu has taken a page out of Trump’s book, and even direction from Trump, to deny us this opportunity,” Tlaib said at the press conference.

“We cannot let Trump and Netanyahu succeed in hiding the cold reality of the occupation, hiding the full reality of the occupation from us,” Omar said.