Tom Malinowski: “When I saw the President's comments over the weekend, my first thought was, my politics may not always be the same as…”

“When I saw the President's comments over the weekend, my first thought was, my politics may not always be the same as the Congresswomen he was attacking; but all of us are Americans. And unlike most of them, I was actually born in a foreign country. I took the oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States when I was 10 years old, with my mom, when I was sworn in to be a citizen 5 years after we came here from Poland. Does the President think I should go back because I am an immigrant who disagrees with his policies? There are 44 million of us American citizens who were born somewhere else, and we new Americans know what it means to be American because we chose America. We know the alternative. Many of us do come from broken countries, a communist country, in my case, broken by communism and, in many cases, broken by leaders who did just what we are condemning today, using race and religion to divide people. The President may be doing it cynically. He wants the drama. He wants the reality show. In my district, we have to deal with the reality that these words are dangerous. Every synagogue in my district either has armed security or is struggling with the question of whether to have it. Every mosque has State Police coming to Friday prayers.…”