Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served as President Trump’s White House communications director, said on Tuesday that the president’s attack on progressive congresswomen of color was “racist and unacceptable.”
Scaramucci in a tweet called out Trump after the president suggested on Sunday that the group of lawmakers “go back” where they came from.
“Would @realDonaldTrump ever tell a white immigrant — whether 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th+ generation — to ‘go back to your country’? No. That’s why the comments were racist and unacceptable,” Scaramucci tweeted. “America is a nation of immigrants founded on the ideals of free thought and free speech.”
{mosads}Democrats were quick to widely denounce Trump’s comments as racist.
Some Republicans, meanwhile, called out the president’s comments as wrong, but few deemed them racist.
The president has continued to defend himself, saying the tweets were not racist.
He tweeted Tuesday he “doesn’t have a racist bone” in his body.
Trump’s tweets were thought to be aimed at four Democratic lawmakers: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.).
All four are women of color and U.S. citizens, and only Omar was born outside the United States.