Republican Senator Lindsey Graham called 4 progressive congresswomen 'a bunch of communists' who 'hate our own country'

Alex Brandon/AP

• Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham threw dynamite onto the ongoing feud between President Donald Trump and a group of progressive congresswomen on "Fox & Friends" Monday morning.
• Over the past week, House Democratic leadership has been openly feuding with four freshman congresswomen of color - Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
• Trump poured fuel on the fire with a series of racist Sunday tweets that instructed the congresswomen to leave America and "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came."
• Graham called the group "a bunch of communists" who "hate Israel" and "hate our own country," further calling them "anti-Semitic" and "anti-America."
• The South Carolina senator avoided criticizing the president and encouraged him to "aim higher," saying, "they are American citizens. They won an election. Take on their policies."
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Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham threw dynamite onto the ongoing feud between President Donald Trump, a group of progressive congresswomen, and the leadership of the Democratic party in a Monday morning appearance on "Fox & Friends," accusing the group of being "communists" and "anti-American."

Tensions between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the freshman congresswomen - Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts - reached a fever pitch last week, with Ocasio-Cortez accusing Pelosi of "singling out" women of color after Pelosi criticized the group in an interview with The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.

Trump poured fuel on the fire with a series of racist Sunday tweets that instructed the congresswomen to leave America and "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came," despite the fact that three out of the four were born in the United States, with Rep. Omar coming to America as a refugee from Somalia at a young age. 

Read more: Trump tells progressive freshman congresswomen to 'go back' to 'broken and crime infested' countries

No congressional Republicans spoke up to unequivocally condemn Trump's comments, with Graham, a Trump ally, encouraging Republicans on "Fox & Friends" to "talk about their policies" instead of where they come from or their personal lives.

"We all know AOC and this crowd are a bunch of communists," Graham said. "They hate Israel, they hate our own country. Calling guards along our border, calling border patrol agents concentration camp guards. They accuse people who support Israel of 'doing it for the Benjamins.' They're anti-Semitic. They're anti-America."

"I think they're American citizens duly-elected running on an agenda that is disgusting, that the American people will reject," Graham continued, referencing policies including government healthcare coverage for undocumented immigrants and decriminalizing unauthorized border crossings.

Trump doubled down on his original tweets later Sunday and on Monday morning, accusing the congresswomen of hating Israel "with a true and unbridled passion," and charging that they "that they have made Israel feel abandoned by the U.S," a refrain Graham repeated on the show. 

Read more: Trump doubled down in his attacks on 4 Democratic congresswomen of color, calling their actions 'horrible' and 'disgusting'

"They're anti-Semitic, they talk about the Israeli state as if they're a bunch of thugs, not victims of the entire region," Graham said. "They wanted to impeach Trump on day one. They're socialists. They're anti-Semitic. They stand for all the things Americans disagree with." 

Ocasio-Cortez has called the Border Patrol's treatment of migrant children "inhumane' and akin to "concentration camps," and Omar has stoked controversy by saying some Americans have an "allegiance" to Israel; none of the women have expressed hatred of fellow citizens or American values. They contend that standing up against injustice is an American value.

When host Brian Kilmeade asked Graham if he thought Trump "went too far" with his tweets, Graham still avoided criticizing the president and encouraged him to "aim higher," saying, "they are American citizens. They won an election. Take on their policies," of the congresswomen. 

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