Politics

‘I’m A Person Of Color. I’m White’: Rep. Mike Kelly Tries To Defend Trump’s ‘Go Back’ Comments

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  • Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Mike Kelly called himself “a person of color” because he’s white Tuesday while responding to questions about Trump’s tweets that some have called racist.
  • He also told VICE News that he has been asked to “go back” to his home country, too, and it didn’t make him “feel anything at all.”
  • Kelly’s comments come after the House passed a resolution Tuesday evening condemning Trump’s tweets.

Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Mike Kelly said he, a white man, is “a person of color” in an attempt to defend President Donald Trump’s July 14 tweets that some have called “racist.”

“You know, they talk about people of color. I’m a person of color. I’m white. I’m an Anglo-Saxon. People say things all the time, but I don’t get offended,” Kelly told VICE News Tuesday. (RELATED: Trump’s Tweets Against The ‘Squad’ Unify Democrats After Pelosi, Progressives Feud)

“‘With a name like Mike Kelly, you can’t be from any place but Ireland,'” he joked.

Kelly also said in a recording published by VICE that he himself has been asked to “go back” to his home country.

“It didn’t make me feel anything at all. I don’t get offended. I have a little thicker skin. I don’t get offended because somebody says something that I don’t like. I’d be walking around with my nose out of joint all day long,” Mr. Kelly said.

“I think, the First Amendment — you’re allowed to say things … and this president is held to a much higher standard by the same people who say horrific things,” he concluded.

“I’ve watched what this president has been able to do in some of the stiffest wings of opposition, and then no matter what he does … he gets absolutely no credit for any of those things.”

In a later Tuesday statement to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Kelly clarified his position. “We’re all created equal. It’s time to stop fixating on our differences and focus on what unites us,” he said. (RELATED: Trump’s Attacks On Progressive ‘Squad’ Continue)

Mike Gwin, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which hopes to unseat Kelly in 2020, told the Post-Gazette, “Mike Kelly is hopelessly out of touch. It’s long past time for Mike Kelly to go.”

Trump tweeted on June 14 suggesting “‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen” should “go back” to their home countries appears to have unified the Democratic Party after a week of feuding. Some have interpreted his words as an attack on Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

The House on Tuesday night passed a resolution that “strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Trump’s comments “racist” on the House floor, saying, “These comments from the White House are disgraceful and disgusting and the comments are racist.”

Kelly’s office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment in time for publication.

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