President Donald Trump, in a strangely giddy and unhinged tweet on Tuesday baselessly accused Democratic U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of “violence.”
“Sorry, I don’t buy Rep. Tlaib’s tears. I have watched her violence, craziness and, most importantly, WORDS, for far too long,” Trump tweeted. “Now tears? 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!”
It’s unclear what the president was referring to when he accused the Michigan Congresswoman of violence, but his other remarks appear to be directed at a press conference she held Monday.
Rep. Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar “appeared at the news conference with Jewish leaders from their districts and called on all members of Congress to visit Israel and the West Bank,” Haaretz reports, noting the President’s Tuesday tweet. “Tlaib said that ‘all Americans should be distrubed’ [sic] by the decision not to let them enter.”
Trump publicly advocated for Israel to block Rep. Tlaib and other Democratic lawmakers from entering the country. Israel complied, although later said Tlaib could visit her elderly grandmother if she obeyed certain restrictions. She rejected the offer.