Sen. Chris Coons on Wednesday said President Trump’s attacks on four minority women are designed to fire up his base of support and pull the attention away from important legislative debates over the pressing issues facing the nation.

Mr. Coons also suggested the media is taking the bait.

“How much time are you spending this morning talking about bipartisan bills that come over from the House to reduce prescription drug prices, to secure protection from pre-existing health conditions or to protect Americans from folks who shouldn’t have access to guns by strengthening our background check system?” Mr. Coons said on CNN’s “New Day.” “Those are bills that have come over from the House and have seen no action in the Senate.

“The Senate has become [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell’s legislative graveyard,” the Delaware Democrat said. “Instead, we are going to spend days fighting over the president’s racist tweets.”

Mr. Coons said Democrats should “briefly and in a focused way” denounce Mr. Trump’s inflammatory remarks and quickly return the focus to letting voters know how Democrats would lead if given the opportunity to control the Senate and the White House after the 2020 election.

“It is an intentional strategy by the president to change the subject,” Mr. Coons said. “We should be talking briefly, in a focused way, about how inappropriate and unacceptable these tweets are, about how they don’t reflect well on the United States overseas or at home, and how they send destructive messages here within our country.”

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