Trump Fires Back at Critics of Dem Tweets: See You at Ballot Box!

President Donald Trump responded to critics who spent Sunday hammering him as racist or xenophobic for his early morning tweets apparently aimed at a group of four female members of Congress who have feuded publicly with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Trump took to Twitter again Sunday evening in two tweets to say:

"So sad to see the Democrats sticking up for people who speak so badly of our Country and who, in addition, hate Israel with a true and unbridled passion. Whenever confronted, they call their adversaries, including Nancy Pelosi, 'RACIST.' Their disgusting language.....

"....and the many terrible things they say about the United States must not be allowed to go unchallenged. If the Democrat Party wants to continue to condone such disgraceful behavior, then we look even more forward to seeing you at the ballot box in 2020!"

Earlier, Trump had told the group of mostly American-born Democratic congresswomen to "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came," a comment that was condemned by Democrats as racist.

"So interesting to see 'Progressive' Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe... viciously telling the people of the United States... how our government is to be run," Trump said in a series of three comments on Twitter.

While he did not mention names, Trump appeared to be referring to first-year Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan - a group known as "the squad" that has been very critical of Trump and also of the current Democratic leadership of the House.

Only Omar, whose family left Somalia as refugees and arrived in Minneapolis in 1997, was born outside the United States.

"Mr. President, the country I 'come from,' and the country we all swear to, is the United States," Ocasio-Cortez, like Trump a native of New York City, responded on Twitter. "You are angry because you can't conceive of an America that includes us. You rely on a frightened America for your plunder."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, has feuded with the group in an increasingly bitter intra-party fight, but came to their defense Sunday along with other Democratic colleagues. She called Trump's comments "xenophobic."

"When @realDonaldTrump tells four American Congresswomen to go back to their countries, he reaffirms his plan to 'Make America Great Again' has always been about making America white again," she said on Twitter.

"Do I fit into the President's category?" U.S. Senator Dick Durbin on Illinois, said on CBS's "Face the Nation," mentioning his family's Lithuanian heritage.

"Thanks goodness," he said of Omar's journey from refugee to one of only two Muslim women elected to Congress, along with Tlaib, a native of Detroit. "That is what America holds as a dream. The president should not diminish it."