House condemns Trump's tweets as Pelosi decries president's 'racist' attacks

The U.S. House of Representatives voted in favour of aresolution on Tuesday condemning U.S. President Donald Trump's racially charged attacks on fourDemocratic congresswomen.

Four Republicans and one Independentjoined every Democrat in voting to rebuke thethe president. The measurewas adopted by a vote of 240-187.

Trump triggered the controversy during the weekend bytweeting the four should "go back" where they came from.

The measure, which is symbolic and has no force oflaw, was expected to passsince Democrats have a majority in theHouse, with any Republican support for the resolution signallingthat Trump's attacks had crossed a line.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, IlhanOmar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and RashidaTlaib of Michigan have been critical of Trumpas well as of the current Democratic leaders of the House, straining partyunity in that chamber.

The four are minority womenon the Democrats'progressive wing and in their first terms in Congress. All are U.S. citizens, with three born in the United States.

Watch the response from four Democratic congresswomen to Trump:

Democratic congresswomen call Trump's attacks against them a 'distraction'

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The four congresswomen of colour understood to be the target of the U.S. president's recent barbs responded by telling their supporters to 'not take the bait.'

ATexas Democrat, meanwhile, filed articles of impeachment against Trump after the vote concluded a move that could force a politically fraught vote by the end of the week.

"Enough is enough," Rep. Al Green said in response to Trump's tweets.

Under House rules, a single member of the House can force an impeachment vote. Green did so twice, unsuccessfully, when Republicans controlled the House.

For now, a majority of House Democrats appear to oppose impeachment. Pelosi has resisted launching official proceedings without broad bipartisan support.

Motion to strike Pelosi's comments fails

The vote was was delayed after an objection by House Republicans to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's remarks criticizing the president's tweets.

During a floor speech, the California Democrat said Trump's tweets were "disgraceful and disgusting and the comments were racist." She said Republicans should join Democrats in condemning "the president's racist tweets" and to not do so would be "a shameful abdication" of lawmakers' oath of office.

Watch Pelosicondemn Trump's recent comments:

Pelosi descries Trump's comments as racist

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U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned U.S. President Donald Trump's recent remarks against for Democratic congresswomen.

Republican Rep. Doug Collins said Pelosi's words should be stricken from the House record, a rare procedural move. But its importance was escalated in a fight that pits Democrats against the president.

The motion to strike Pelosi's comments was later rejected.

In an unusual move, Democratic Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who was overseeing the debate, stormed away from the presiding officer's chair.

"We don't ever, ever want to pass up, it seems, an opportunity to escalate. And that's what this is,"he said just beforehe stormed off.

"We want to just fight. I abandon the chair."

'What's your ethnicity?'

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, meanwhile, got into a terse exchange with a reporter while attempting to defend Trumps tweets. At the beginning of the exchange, she asked: "What's your ethnicity?"

Watch Conway's exchange with the reporter:

Kellyanne Conway asks reporter's ethnicity in terse exchange

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Duration 0:59

While discussing Trump's ongoing polemic with four Democratic congresswomen, Conway asks a reporter 'what's your ethnicity?'

Trumpcalled on fellow Republicans to stick with him, "not show weakness" and oppose the House resolution.

"I will vote against this resolution," House minority leader Kevin McCarthy of California told reporters, calling the measure "all politics."

Watch McCarthy respond when asked if he thought Trump's tweets were racist:

House Minority Leader McCarthy says Trump's tweets were not racist

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U.S. House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, says the ongoing polemic between the president and four Democratic congresswomen is about ideology.

No. 3 House Republican Liz Cheney of Wyoming said the four Democrats "are wrong when they attempt to impose the fraud of socialism on the American people."

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell broke two days of silence about Trump's insults, agreeing that Trump is not a racist but mildly admonishing him as well.

Watch McConnell weigh in on Trump's comments:

Trump is not a racist, says Mitch McConnell

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Duration 0:29

The Senate Majority Leader ended two days of silence over the president's tweets against four Democratic congresswomen.

The Kentucky Republican said that "from the president to the speaker to the freshman members of the House," leaders should follow the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's dictum of attacking ideas, not the people who espouse them.

"There's been a consensus that political rhetoric has gotten way, way heated across the political spectrum," McConnell told reporters.

The four Republicans who voted to condemn Trump's remarks were:Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Fred Upton of Michigan, Will Hurd of Texas and Susan Brooks of Indiana, who is retiring. Also backing the measure was Michigan's Independent Rep. Justin Amash, who left the Republican Party this month after becoming the party's sole member of Congress to back a Trump impeachment inquiry.