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President Trump's 'racist' tweets pulling spotlight from Louisiana issues

At a time when flood protection, mitigation and other issues need to be addressed, this latest controversy is grabbing most of the headlines

NEW ORLEANS — The recent controversy over alleged racist comments by the President and some Congressional Democrats may be causing other issues to fall off the political radar.  

Many Democrats and even some Republicans are calling recent tweets by the President racist.  On the other side, President Trump, his administration and other Republicans are saying it's the four minority Congresswomen linked to the tweets who are racist. 

You can decide who is right.  What's hard to deny is the attention this is getting. 

Since the President posted the Tweet on Sunday telling the Congresswomen to "go back" to the countries in which they came from, it's gotten more than 38,000 re-Tweets and more than 179,000 likes (at the time this article was published).  But another Tweet by the President on the same day, which was warning of the major risk of flooding in Louisiana got roughly 11,000 re-Tweets and more than 64,000 likes.    

RELATED: Sen. Kennedy calls 4 Democratic congresswomen 'fools' after Trump tweets

The political combat is happening outside of the online arena.  This morning at a news conference that was supposed to focus on the upcoming votes in Congress, both House Republicans and Democrats had to first address the war of words between the President and the Democrats.  Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise says when Barack Obama was in office, Republicans behaved differently.

“We disagreed on a lot of things Barack Obama did, the policies, as our conference chair, laid out.  A lot of policies we had disagreements on with Speaker Pelosi and her socialist Democrats, just like we did with a lot of Barack Obama's policies, but we never disrespected the office,” said Congressman Scalise. 

RELATED: 'Many people agree with me': Trump digs in on tweets

Congressman Cedric Richmond, the only Democrat from Louisiana, issued a statement today saying in part, “As youth, we were told, 'go back to Africa'. It was racist then and it is racist now.”

Here in Louisiana, the two Republican candidates for governor tweeted their support of the president.  Congressman Ralph Abraham said in part, "I'll pay for their tickets out of this country if they just tell me where they'd rather be.” 

In his Tweet, Ed Rispone said in part, "If these America hating crazies in Washington don't like it, they should crawl back under the rock they came from.”   

Democratic incumbent John Bel Edwards declined to comment on the President’s statements.  

RELATED: Leave the US, Trump tells liberal congresswomen of color

At a time when flood protection, mitigation and other issues need to be addressed, this latest controversy is grabbing most of the headlines.  Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who disagrees with the recent comments by both the President and Democrats, says what we're seeing right now is just a political flash in the pan.  He stressed more substantive issues will be considered. 

"So, this is a short term news cycle, but there's more stuff that's coming down the pike," said Senator Cassidy.   

It's a prediction that may be challenged, considering the outrage on both sides.

RELATED: Louisiana congressman said he'd buy tickets for congresswomen to leave

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