After a number of Republicans and Democrats called out the National Republican Congressional Committee for a tweet in which the group called Democratic Rep. Adriano Espaillat an “illegal immigrant,” the NRCC quietly deleted the post on Friday.
The tweet, claiming that Democrats “literally chose an illegal immigrant to give their response to President Trump’s address,” was widely panned for its inaccuracy and tone. (Espaillat, the head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, delivered a rebuttal to Donald Trump’s speech in Spanish and has been a legal citizen for 60 years.)
When Espaillat was a child, his family overstayed a tourist visa before getting green cards in 1965.
After the tweet was deleted, NRCC communications director Will Kiley told NOTUS the House GOP’s campaign arm refuses “to let Democrats distract from their disastrous Joint Address antics.”
“Only a handful of them voted to censure Al Green while refusing to apologize for their disgraceful behavior toward President Trump, American workers, and victims of violent crime. Their antics on the House floor were far more egregious than any tweet,” Kiley said in a statement to NOTUS.
While the NRCC is clearly trying to move on from the ordeal, Democrats are unlikely to just forget about the episode.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on X that, “These people are disgusting.” And the new Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said the GOP “isn’t even trying to hide its racism anymore.”
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Reese Gorman is a reporter at NOTUS.