President Trump has been accused of posting ‘racist’ tweets attacking 4 congresswomen – none of whom are white. Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib have responded to these tweets.
The story
A group of Democratic congresswomen criticised by President Trump in a series of racially-charged tweets have accused him of pursuing a white-nationalist agenda.
At a joint news conference, the four women – none of them white – condemned what they called the president’s “xenophobic comments”.
One of them, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said that all American citizens had a right to be in the US – no matter the colour of their skin or their religion.
Key words and phrases
-circulating
passing around and through a group or system
• Make sure to wash your hands. There’s a flu circulating at the moment.
• Once the news had circulated around the company, the CEO called a meeting.
-rant
loud angry complaint
• After his anger-fuelled rant, the lecturer had a headache and needed to lie down.
• I always feel better after a good rant – it clears all your frustrations!
-take the bait
react to provocation
• The younger sibling didn’t take the bait when his older brother teased him.
• Despite his opponent’s insults, the politician didn’t take the bait and stayed on topic.
Language challenge
An ‘extreme dislike or fear of foreigners’ is known as:
a) zenophobia
b) xeknowfobya
c) xenophobia
For the answer, watch this on our website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/course/newsreview/unit-10/session-99