The New Republic reports House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) refused to give a direct answer when asked if he agreed with President Donald Trump’s characterization of thousands of Somali residents — thousands of whom live in Emmer's district — as “garbage.”
Migrant Insider’s Pablo Manríquez confronted Emmer as he walked down a hall, demanding if he agreed with Trump that “5,000 Somali residents in your district in St. Cloud are garbage?”
The New Republic pointed out that the Republican majority whip “offered a weak, political non-answer.”
“I think what President Trump has done is raise an issue that is something that we’ve been trying to raise for almost three years,” Emmer said. “The press refuses to cover things that are right in front of them—”
“Donald Trump said that the Somalis are garbage, that’s what I’m asking you about,” Manríquez repeated.
Emmer complained that Manríquez was not letting him finish his statement, to which Manríquez replied: “Well, it’s a ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”
Eventually Emmer said: “Not all Somalis are bad,” but he followed that up with the claim, “90 percent of the … crimes that have been charged are from the Somali community, and there’s nothing wrong, and nothing racist, about calling out crime.”
Trump has singled out the Somali-American community in Minnesota, saying: “I don't want them in our country. Their country's no good for a reason. Their country stinks and we don't want them in our country. I could say that about other countries too."
“They contribute nothing. The welfare is like 88 percent or something. They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country,” Trump told reporters at a recent cabinet meeting. “Their country is no good for a reason. Your country stinks and we don’t want them in our country.”
"If we keep taking in garbage into our country. [U.S. Rep.] Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is garbage. She's garbage. Her friends are garbage. … These are people that do nothing but complain," Trump added.