Both of the Senators from South Dakota, who are Republicans, stated on Monday that President Donald Trump should avoid referencing the “Wounded Knee” massacre as part of his attacks targeting political opponents.
According to The Hill, Senator Mike Rounds tweeted that Trump should go with him to visit tribal lands in South Dakota, where the 1890 massacre took place, adding that the country should “mend our history through reconciliation [and] mutual respect.”
“The Wounded Knee Massacre was one of the darkest moments in our history. It should never be used as a punchline,” Rounds said on Monday.
Meanwhile the second Senator, John Thune, separately told reporters that he wished Trump “wouldn’t do that.”
“I wish he wouldn’t tweet as much, [as] I’ve said many times in the past. That’s obviously a very sensitive part of our state’s history. So yeah, I wish he’d stay away from it,” Thune told reporters.
The public pushback comes after Trump mocked a video of Senator Elizabeth Warren over the weekend and renewed his use of his racially charged nickname for the potential 2020 contender: Pocahontas.
Trump, in a reference to her Native American heritage, said the video would have been a “smash” if she filmed it in “Bighorn or Wounded Knee.” Hundreds of Sioux men, women and children were killed by U.S. Calvary troops in the late 19th century during the Wounded Knee massacre, marking one of the deadliest attacks on Native Americans by the U.S. military.
“If Elizabeth Warren, often referred to by me as Pocahontas, did this commercial from Bighorn or Wounded Knee instead of her kitchen, with her husband dressed in full Indian garb, it would have been a smash!” Trump tweeted.
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