Amid a raging debate across the United States on racism following US President Donald Trump's Twitter outburst and the recently concluded ICE raids which targeted immigrants, a senior counselor to Trump raised eyebrows after she asked a reporter about his ethnicity here on Tuesday.
"If the President was not telling these four Congresswomen to return to their supposed countries of origin, to which countries was he referring?" was the reporter's question, in a video of the incident shared by CNN.
"What's your ethnicity?" Kellyanne Conway asked in response.
"Why is that relevant?" the reporter quipped before Conway said "because I'm asking a question" following which she listed where her ancestors are from.
"My own ethnicity is not relevant to the question I'm asking," the reporter replied.
"No, no it is because you're asking about he (Trump) said originally from and you know everything he has said since and had a full conversation," she said.
"The President's already commented on that and he's said a lot about it since that one tweet. He's put out a lot of tweets and he's made himself available to all of you yesterday," Conway interjected when the reporter started to cross-question, getting visibly frustrated by the moment.
"He (Trump) is tired. A lot of us are sick and tired that of this country, of America coming last to people who swore an oath of office. Sick and tired of our military being denigrated. Sick and tired of Customs and Border Control Protection people I was with -- who are overwhelmingly Hispc, by the way -- Sick and tired of them being criticised..."
"I understand," the reporter remarked, only to be countered by Conway with a "No you don't because you didn't go."
Conway continued, "...by a bunch of Hollywood D-listers who have nothing else to do but sit on their asses on Twitter all day and try to dox brave men and women who are diving into the Rio Grande to save people who are drowning, who are taking other people's babies into custody and diapering them and feeding them, looking the other way, while people are running across with drugs. That's going on," she said, losing her cool.
On Sunday, Trump shocked many after he indirectly asked four Democratic Congresswomen -- who are all People of Colour (POC) -- to go back to the "broken, crime-infested countries" they "came" from. This was the first among the several outbursts Trump has had on Twitter while targetting the freshmen congresswomen.
The Democrats, namely Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley, have hit back at Trump, rejecting his narrative and labelling it as nothing more than a "distraction" which diverts attention from problems that the USA is currently facing during a presser held in Washington on Monday.
They have been backed by most Democrat leaders who have condemned Trump's statements. A few Republicans have also dismissed Trump's comments, even though most have refrained from labelling the President's outburst as "racist."
( With inputs from ANI )