The US House of Representatives that is dominated by the Democratic Party has voted to condemn President Donald Trump after a series of purported attacks aimed at four congresswomen. The resolution was passed by 240 votes to 187. In addition to the Democrat representatives, four Republicans and the sole independent lawmaker Justin Amash also joined the Democrats to approve this resolution. CNBC has reported that the four Republicans who joined the Democrats were Will Hurd, Brian Fitzpatrick, Fred Lipton, and Susan Brooks.
The resolution
The resolution has only symbolic value, but it shows to the world that the United States is a divided house.
It must be noted that though such a resolution has no legal binding and is only a statement of opinion, yet it's very rare for the house to pass such a resolution censuring a sitting president.
The four women representatives who were targeted by Trump are all from the minority community, and one of them was born in Somalia and became a citizen of the US at the age of 17. Trump is a forthright man, and all along in his tenure has expressed his views through tweets. In this case, he targeted Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Talib. All the four Democrat members of the house ancestors hail from countries that are undergoing turmoil and conditions close to anarchy.
Three of the women were born in the US and are American citizens by birth. To be fair to Trump, he did not name the women senators, but the aim of his tweets clearly targeted them.
Tweets
The president tweeted that the women representatives "originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe and should go back." The four women who are known as the squad gave a muted reaction to Trump's tweets and commented that the attacks were a distraction and urged people to ignore them and focus on policies.
The BBC has reported that immediately after the resolution censuring the president was passed Al Green, the Democratic representative from Texas filed articles of impeachment against the president.
Impeachment
The impeachment process is not likely to be pursued further and is purely symbolic. The resolution passed by the house is of some importance as it's the first rebuke of a president in more than 100 years.
Donald Trump, who recently stopped an Iran air attack, is on the campaign trail had fired his salvo against the four women senators. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker, had said that there is no excuse for these words but a swift and strong, unified condemnation.
Last word
The battle lines for 2020 elections are drawn, and Trump has sounded the bugle. It's worth examining what Trump said. The President had drawn attention to the four women representatives and said that the countries they came from were in a mess and it would be proper for them to go back and set aright the mess and then come back and advise us how it can be done in the USA.