The first American Congresswoman of Palestinian origin, Rashida Tlaib, has caused controversy by calling for the impeachment of Donald Trump in colourful language.
Speaking to a crowd hours after being sworn in, Tlaib recalled the moment she won her election in November.
“And when your son looks at you and says, ‘Mama look, you won. Bullies don’t win,’ and I said, ‘Baby, they don’t,’ because we’re gonna go in there and we’re going to impeach the motherf****r,” Tlaib said on Thursday, speaking of Trump.
Tlaib did not seem remorseful about her choice of words on Friday.
“I will always speak truth to power. #unapologeticallyMe,” she wrote on Twitter.
Her office also released a statement Friday, saying, “The Congresswoman absolutely believes he needs to be impeached.”
“She ran and won by making this very clear to the voters in her district,” the statement said. “Donald Trump’s actions have harmed the 13th Congressional District and this country, and Congresswoman Tlaib will not stay silent while this happens.”
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Tlaib, who is also the joint first Muslim woman to be elected to Congress, is one of few Democratic lawmakers to call for Trump’s removal from office. However, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other House Democratic leaders have tread more carefully around the topic of impeachment.
On Friday afternoon, Trump called Tlaib’s comments “disgraceful” when he was asked to respond to them.
He told reporters: “I thought her comments were disgraceful. This is a person that I don’t know. I assume she’s new. I think she dishonored herself, and I think she dishonored her family using language like that. … I thought it was highly disrespectful to the United States of America.”
Trump added that Pelosi told him on Friday: “‘We’re not looking to impeach you.'”
