House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday blasted President Trump’s push for a citizenship question on the 2020 census as an effort to “Make America White Again” — claiming, “it’s not what our founders had in mind.”
“They want to make sure that people, certain people, are counted,” Pelosi said at a press conference in San Francisco that focused on election security.
“Just their people vote and not the general population,” said the Democratic lawmaker. “That’s why they’re fighting the census.”
White House officials did not immediately return requests for comment from The Post on the statements.
Pelosi, who was visiting her home district Monday, repeatedly called the idea of adding a citizenship question to next year’s survey “disgraceful.”
“This is about keeping — you know … his hat — Make America White Again,” she said.
The Trump administration has said the proposed citizenship question would help the government enforce the Voting Rights Act, which protects minority voters’ access to the ballot box.
According to Pelosi, what they really want to do “is put a chilling effect so certain populations will not answer the form.”
“It’s really disgraceful. And it’s not what our founders had in mind,” Pelosi said.
The president has vowed to continue his efforts to get the citizenship question added to next year’s census. The Supreme Court recently rejected the idea, saying the Trump administration needs to provide a further explanation of why it should be included.
Experts at the Census Bureau believe the question would likely discourage immigrants from taking part in the data-collecting survey.
The Justice Department has appointed a new team of Civil Division lawyers to handle all census-related cases, including Trump’s push for the census update.
“The Supreme Court did not rule in their favor because they said the administration did not give sufficient evidence as to why the census citizenship question should be there,” Pelosi said. “So they kicked the can, and then the administration said, ‘OK we won’t put it on there,’ and then the President injected himself into this.”