Canada’s first female prime minister, Kim Campbell, referred to President Donald Trump with an expletive Saturday over his commitment to building a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Campbell, who served as prime minister from June to November 1993, described President Trump a “motherf**ker!” in a tweet sent before 10:00 a.m. this morning — using the same profanity-laced term as freshman congresswoman Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) in her pledge this week to impeach the president.
Speaking before a reception organized by the progressive advocacy group MoveOn.org Thursday evening, Tlaib vowed to remove President Trump from the White House, telling the raucous crowd, “[W]e’re going to go in there, and we’re going to impeach the motherfucker.”
Responding to criticism from several Twitter users, Campell argued that her language toward President Trump was tamer in comparison to former Mexican president Vicente Fox and was a play on Tlaib’s comment.
Tlaib’s remark was met with criticism from Democrats, some of whom said impeachment should remain off the table until special counsel Robert Mueller concludes his investigation into purported collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government officials during the 2016 presidential election.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) called the Michigan Democrat’s remark “inappropriate“ and asked his colleagues to act with caution in discussing with the hot-button issue. “You can’t accomplish very much of anything unless you have civility and show respect for your colleagues,” said the newly minted House Oversight and Reform Committee chairman. “Those kinds of comments do not take us in the right direction.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) was seemingly more forgiving of Tlaib, stating that while she does not condone coarse language, the firestorm of criticism appeared to be driven by sexism. “I don’t think any ‘should make a big deal’ of the comment,” Pelosi told MSNBC host Joy Reid in a town hall Friday. “I’m not in the censorship business. I don’t like that language, I wouldn’t use that language, but I wouldn’t establish language standards for my colleagues,” she added.