Echoing Trump, Roy Moore tweets that Rep. Ilhan Omar should go back from 'whence she came'

WASHINGTON -- Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore responded Wednesday to a dig from Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., by echoing President Donald Trump's rhetoric. Omar should “go back to Somalia from whence she came,” Moore wrote on Twitter.

Moore’s response comes after Omar tweeted at the Alabama Republican Party which has begun an effort to convince the state's congressional delegation to seek Omar's expulsion from the House of Representatives. The state party recently passed a resolution that cited a number of comments Omar made about Israel that have sparked controversy over the last several months.

The resolution calling for the launch of expulsion proceedings got the stamp of approval from the Alabama GOP over the weekend, according to AL.com.

"Rep. Omar has engaged in rhetoric that explicitly runs counter to American values and patriotism," the resolution reads. "The Alabama Republican Party urges its elected congressional delegation to proceed with the expulsion process in accordance to Article 1, Section 5 of the U.S. Constitution to expel Rep. Ilhan Omar from the United States House of Representatives."

Omar responded to the effort on Twitter Tuesday by boasting about the support she has in her district in Minnesota and calling out Moore, 72, a controversial former judge who lost a 2017 Senate race after being accused of decades-old sexual misconduct involving teenage girls when he was in his 30s. Moore has denied the allegations. He lost to Democrat Doug Jones.

Omar told the Alabama GOP; "If you want to clean up politics, maybe don’t nominate an accused child molester as your Senate candidate?"

More: Alabama Republicans are urging Rep. Ilhan Omar's expulsion from Congress

Moore responded Wednesday, posting four tweets about Omar and the state GOP's resolution. "I fully support the resolution of the Ala Rep Party asking Congress to expel Omar under Article 1 Section 5 of the US Constitution," Moore wrote in one tweet. In another tweet, he called the progressive congresswoman a "sworn enemy of Israel" and an "avowed Muslim."

In another tweet, Moore says "President Trump was right, she should go back to Somalia from whence she came."

Moore is referencing a tweet by Trump in which the president told four Democratic congresswomen, including Omar, -- known together as "The Squad" -- to "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came."

"The Squad" is an outspoken group of progressive freshmen in the House who are all women of color. In addition to Omar, the group of frequent Trump critics is comprised of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass. Three of the four were born in the United States and Omar is a naturalized U.S. citizen who immigrated from Somalia as a refugee. She became an American citizen when she was 17.

Trump's comments were later condemned by a House resolution.

After the president's tweets, the crowd at a Trump rally in North Carolina, broke into chants of "send her back." Trump made no effort to stop the chant at the time. Afterward, the president initially said that he did not agree with the chant. But Trump then said he thought the people who had attended the North Carolina rally were "incredible patriots."

After the "send her back" controversy, Omar and Tlaib were embroiled in a second controversy involving Trump when the two Democratic lawmakers were barred, at the president's urging, from entering Israel for a planned visit to the U.S. ally. Tlaib was subsequently allowed by Israeli officials to travel to the West Bank to visit her grandmother but ultimately declined to do so. Omar and Tlaib are the first two Muslim women ever elected to Congress.

Despite his losing campaign in 2017, Moore has said that he will seek a rematch against Sen. Doug Jones, D-Ala., in next year's election even amid opposition to his candidacy from within the national GOP.

After Moore announced he would be running again, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell,R-Ky., said "We will be opposing Roy More vigorously."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Roy Moore says Rep. Ilhan Omar should go back from 'whence she came'