German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday that US President Donald Trump’s racist comments about four Democratic Congresswomen “undermine America’s strength” and that she stands in “solidarity” with the women.
Speaking at her annual news conference in Berlin, Merkel said: “I distance myself from this decidedly and stand in solidarity with the women who were attacked.”
She added that from her perspective the “US’s strength lies exactly in the fact that people of very different nationalities contribute to the strength of the American people.”
Trump told the four women of color that they should “go back” to the “crime-infested places” they came from, even though three of the four were born in America and the fourth is a naturalized citizen.
“Those (President Trump’s statements) are sentiments which are very much in opposition to my impressions (about the US) which I strongly believe in and it is something that undermines America’s strength,” Merkel said.
Trump has refused to apologize for the comments and continues to insist the tweets are not racist. The President tweeted Tuesday that he did not have a “racist bone in my body.”
Earlier in the week, a spokesman for UK Prime Minister Theresa May also criticized the comments, describing them as “completely unacceptable.” The two candidates in line to replace May as British Prime Minister — Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt — joined her in that criticism.
Source: CNN
