House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Tuesday took to the floor of Congress to read a statement denouncing President Donald Trump's recent statements telling four congresswomen of color to go back to their home country.
"The comments are racist," Pelosi said. "How shameful to hear him continue to defend the offensive words. Words we have heard him repeat not only about our members but about countless others. Our caucus will continue to forcefully respond on these attacks which reflect a fundamental disrespect for the beautiful diversity of America. There’s no place anywhere for the president’s words which are not only divisive but dangerous and have legitimatized an increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color."
She went on to call the words "disgraceful" and "disgusting."
It was then that Republicans interrupted asking if Pelosi would like to "rephrase" her remarks. Pelosi said that she had her remarks cleared by the Parliamentarian prior to reading them.
"Could I ask the words be taken down? They are unparliamentary... [and should be] taken down," said Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA).
Congress has rules that say that they cannot attack the president personally by calling him a racist. There is an argument that Pelosi’s statement was about denouncing the tweets, not the president.
Correspondent Jamie Dupree tweeted a copy of the Congressional rules, which prevent calling the president out. Interestingly, there were alterations to the rule in 2016, 2017 and 2018, when Republicans were in control of the House rules.
Watch the incident below:
