Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not explicitly condemn tweets by U.S. President Donald Trump telling several Democratic congresswoman to “go back” to where they came from, saying instead that’s not how things are done here.
His response comes after politicians including the U.K.’s Theresa May condemned the tweets as “completely unacceptable.”
Trudeau was asked by reporters on Monday for his reaction to the tweets by Trump, in which the president told several Democratic congresswomen to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came” and then “come back and show us how it is done.”
Trump didn’t name the congresswomen in his tweets but it’s been suggested he was referring to the four who have been some of his most vocal critics: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib.
All, with the exception of Omar, were born in the U.S.
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“I think Canadians and indeed people around the world know what I think of those particular comments. That’s not how we do things in Canada,” Trudeau said.
“A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.”
He added that diversity is a source of strength for Canada but did not say whether he believes the tweets were racist.
When asked by Global News why Trudeau was not explicitly condemning the tweets, a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office said, “We don’t have anything to add.”
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Trudeau’s remarks stand in contrast to those of May as well as Nicola Sturgeon, who is the First Minister of Scotland.
Both female leaders explicitly condemned Trump’s tweets, with Sturgeon arguing “diplomatic politeness” shouldn’t be an excuse for politicians not to speak out.
The BBC also reported a spokesperson for May said in a statement that “the prime minister’s view is that the language used to refer to these women was completely unacceptable.”
In an interview with the U.K. radio station LBC, London Mayor Sadiq Khan also condemned the tweets.
“The sort of language — ‘go back to where you came from’ — it’s the sort of language I’ve heard in my lifetime from racists and fascists. Never from a mainstream politician,” he said in the interview.
When asked on Monday whether he thought his tweets were racist, Trump said “not at all.”
More to come.
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