In response to President Donald Trump's tweet referring to a group of Democratic congresswomen as foreign-born troublemakers who should go back to the "broken and crime infested places from which they came" Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, on Monday said he feels that several new lawmakers have views inconsistent with his experience and "building a strong America."
"I certainly feel a number of these new members of Congress have views that are not consistent with my experience and not consistent with building a strong America," he told NBC10 Boston reporter Alison King, according to her tweet.
"At the same time, I recognize that the [president] has a unique and noble calling to unite all Americans regardless of our creeds or race or place of our national origin and I think in that case, the [president] fell far short."
On whether Trump's tweet was racist, Romney dodged, telling King, "that's all I got, thanks" as he walked away.
Reps. Will Hurd, R-Texas, and Mike Turner, R-Ohio, called the tweets racist. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said Trump's tweets were "racially offensive."
Trump did not specify who he was referring to in his early morning Sunday tweets, but many news outlets suggested he was directing his comments to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and her allies in what has become known as "the squad."
The others are Reps. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. Rep. Omar, from Somalia, is the only foreign-born lawmaker of the group.