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The four progressive congresswomen of color targeted in a racist tirade by President Trump that elicited widespread condemnation — including from some Republicans — are slated to hold a joint news conference on Monday to address the commander-in-chief’s controversial remarks. 

Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts are set to make their first televised public statements about the president’s comments during the event at the Capitol in Washington at 5:00 p.m. ET. 

Although he did not name them, Mr. Trump on Sunday morning posted a series of tweets deriding “‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen,” alluding to Omar, Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib — who’ve been engaged in a intra-party dispute with Democratic leadership in the House, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi, over various legislative efforts, including on immigration. 

“So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter. “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done.” 

“These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!” the president added. 

During an event at the South Lawn on Monday, the president doubled down on his statements, saying the progressive foursome “hate our country.”

The comments drew swift and scathing condemnation on Sunday from Democrats in Congress and those hoping to challenge Mr. Trump in the general presidential election next year. Like others in her party who accused the president of stoking racial animus, Pelosi called the remarks “xenophobic.” 

The speaker announced on Monday that Democratic lawmakers in the House will be introducing a resolution to condemn the president’s racist attack. She urged her Republican colleagues to support it. 

Some also pointed to the factual inaccuracies in Mr. Trump’s comments. He claimed that the four Democratic congresswomen “originally came” from foreign countries but only Omar was born outside the U.S. Pressley, an African American, was born in Ohio. Ocasio-Cortez, of Puerto Rican heritage, was born in New York. Tlaib, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, was born in Detroit. 

Omar, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was born in Somalia, a country she and her family fled from because of a civil war and ethnic strife. They stayed in a refugee camp in Kenya before settling in the U.S. when she was 10 years old, and she became a citizen at 17.

Although some Republicans refused to address the comments or demurred when asked about them, several GOP lawmakers publicly denounced Mr. Trump’s comments on Monday. Most, however, stopped short of calling them racist and made sure to note that they believe Omar, Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib are far-left Democrats who hold fringe views. 

“I disagree strongly with many of the views and comments of some of the far-left members of the House Democratic Caucus – especially when it comes to their views on socialism, their anti-Semitic rhetoric, and their negative comments about law enforcement,” Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said in a statement. “But the President’s tweet that some Members of Congress should go back to the ‘places from which they came’ was way over the line, and he should take that down.”