President Trump called Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) a “crazed lunatic” Tuesday after video resurfaced of the Democrat being forcibly removed by security from a Trump speech in 2016. Speaking to students at a summit for conservative group Turning Point USA, the president mocked Tlaib, saying, “This is not a sane person.”
“She’s like a crazed lunatic,” Trump said. “She’s screaming just before she got into Congress. Who elected her? She’s screaming like a total lunatic at one of our rallies.”
Trump mocks “crazed lunatic” Tlaib
Tlaib, along with other members of the so-called “squad,” is among the most outspoken critics of President Trump. The Democrat became known to many Americans when she vowed to “impeach the motherf****er” when she joined Congress in January.
That kind of brash rhetoric has brought Tlaib, along with Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), into conflict with the president. But before Tlaib was wrapped up in a feud with Trump that consumed American politics, she was a former state Michigan representative who was protesting Trump’s candidacy — fruitlessly, as it turned out.
In the resurfaced video from August 2016, Tlaib can be seen jumping and shouting, “You guys are crazy!” while being dragged out of Trump’s speech to the Detroit Economic Club, where then-candidate Trump addressed a group of business leaders. An audience member off camera fires back, “You’re an animal! Get a job!”‘ Watch below:
My god! Tlaib back in 2016. pic.twitter.com/7RNRpv32TO
— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) July 20, 2019
Trump did not seem alarmed at the time, as he calmly waited for the protesters to be removed before joking, “I will say, the Bernie Sanders people had far more energy and spirit.”
Democrat Rashida Tlaib exploded at then-candidate Donald Trump as he gave his economic policy speech on 08/08/2016 at the Detroit Economic Club
Notice how Trump is calm and does not agitate the situation as Tlaib has a public meltdown and has to be physically removed by security pic.twitter.com/ielSryzNFV
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 21, 2019
Tlaib, who was a Michigan state representative until 2014, was among some 14 protesters who were removed from the 2016 event. In a column for the Detroit Free Press, Tlaib later defended her “patriotic and courageous act,” which she acknowledged was criticized as “unbecoming of a former state legislator,” and compared herself to Civil Rights icons like Rosa Parks.
Trump, Tlaib double down
Tlaib has since become one of Trump’s most vocal critics and advocates for his impeachment in Congress. Trump has targeted Tlaib and the other members of the “squad” in recent days amid an ongoing feud that erupted earlier this month after Trump suggested that the “squad” to “go back” to their home countries if they were unhappy with America. Tlaib, however, is from Michigan, and only Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was born outside the United States.
Democrats have accused Trump of racism over his verbal attacks on the four lawmakers, but Trump and his allies insist that the four Democrats should be criticized for their far-left anti-American and, in some instances, anti-Semitic statements. All four members have called to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), among other radical policies, and Tlaib and Omar, in particular, have been accused of anti-Semitism.
Tlaib, who is Palestinian-American, came under fire earlier this year when she said the Holocaust gave her “kind of a calming feeling” because it made her think of how the Palestinians gave up their land to help Jews fleeing persecution in Europe. Tlaib was criticized for appropriating the history of the Holocaust and trivializing the calamity.
Meanwhile, neither side in the ongoing feud has shown signs of blinking. On Monday, Tlaib vowed that she’s “not going anywhere, not until I impeach this president” in a speech before the NAACP convention in Detroit. Trump doubled down all week, quipping Tuesday that the “nightmare” of “AOC plus 3” would help him win re-election.
“This is not a sane person, folks, when you look at that. And this is what we’re up against,” Trump said of Tlaib Tuesday.
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