U.S. President Donald Trump said a newly elected Palestinian-American congresswoman "dishonored herself" when she used profanity to describe him.
Speaking to reporters in the Rose Garden, Trump said Friday that he thought Rep. Rashida Tlaib's comments were "disgraceful" and "disrespectful" to the United States. He asked, "How do you impeach a president who has won perhaps the greatest election of all time, done nothing wrong" and has had the "most successful two years of any president?"
Tlaib is one of the first two Muslim women to join the U.S. Congress. She is the oldest of 14 children born to a family of Palestinian immigrants and is a Detroit native.
The Michigan Democrat exclaimed, "We're gonna impeach the motherf---er" during a party Thursday night hosted by the liberal activist group MoveOn, according to video and comments on Twitter.
Hours after Tlaib was sworn in as part of the history-making class of freshmen that helped flip the House to Democratic control, she ran afoul of the widespread sense among her colleagues that they should focus for now on health care and other policies rather than impeachment — at least until special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation concludes.
"We're gonna impeach the motherf---er," Tlaib exclaimed during a party Thursday night hosted by the liberal activist group MoveOn, according to video and comments on Twitter.
It was a striking coda to the Democrats' heady ascendance to the House majority Thursday, sparking unusually public corrections from House veterans.
"I disagree with what she said," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., during a CNN interview. His committee would be the one to begin impeachment proceedings.
"It is too early to talk about that intelligently," Nadler said. "We have to follow the facts."
She didn't back down Friday, tweeting that "I will always speak truth to power." She added the hashtag, "#unapologeticallyMe."
During a local TV interview on Friday, Tlaib said she's always had "sass and attitude" and said that "President Trump has met his match." She added that "I'm not going to back down from this biggest bully that now I have to take on."
Her remarks drew almost no support, and plenty of pushback, from members of her party.
"It's been pretty intense," Tlaib, D-Michigan, told The Associated Press in a brief hallway interview Friday as she reported to the House to face her colleagues.
Newcomers routinely stumble as they learn how things are done on Capitol Hill. But Tlaib and her classmates have been celebrated in magazine profiles for their independence and their promises to stand up to the powers that be. By rebuking one, the more seasoned Democrats were effectively warning the others.
But in a statement, a spokesman said Tlaib had been elected to shake up Washington and "absolutely" believes Trump should be impeached.
Tlaib's defiance flew in the face of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's warning to focus on policies the candidates had promised ahead of the Nov. 6 elections. The timing also chafed, just hours before congressional leaders were headed to the White House to try to resolve the standoff over the border wall Trump is demanding in exchange for reopening the government. Republicans pounced, using the occasion to question the Democrats' true priorities and Pelosi's leadership.
With a tight smile, Pelosi rejected Tlaib's profanity and her impeachment vow.
"That is not the position of the House Democratic caucus," Pelosi said on MSNBC of Tlaib's comments. She said, as she has many times before, that impeachment is "divisive" and she wants the new Democratic majority to be unified. At the same time, Pelosi said, "I don't think we should make a big deal of it."
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said he doesn't think "comments like these particularly help."
Meanwhile, Tlaib's relatives in the West Bank expressed their delight at her being the first Palestinian woman elected to the U.S. Congress.
"She promised from the beginning when she started her campaign that when she enters the congress it will be in the Palestinian Thobe [traditional Palestinian dress] and her swearing-in will be on the Quran. This is an affirmation of her Palestinian identity, her Arabian origins, and her Islamic faith," Tlaib's uncle Bassam Tlaib said.
"We are very proud to see her … becoming a U.S. congresswoman. This is a matter of great pride for us, a great accomplishment and we congratulate ourselves, our people and the whole nation for this major victory."
He noted that "since the very beginning, she has promised that one of her priorities when she becomes a congresswoman is to head a U.S. congressional delegation visit to Palestine."
