(CNN) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday criticized President Donald Trump's continued push to add a citizenship question to the upcoming 2020 census, saying that it is part of an effort to "make America white again."

Speaking at a press conference in San Francisco on election security, Pelosi accused Republicans of trying to suppress the vote and gerrymander districts so that "just their people vote and not the general population."

"That's why they're fighting the census," she said.

Pelosi repeatedly called the effort "disgraceful" and invoked a phrase she had previously used to knock Trump's immigration policies.

"But this is about keeping -- you know, Make America, you know his hat -- Make America White Again. They want to make sure that people, certain people, are counted," she said.

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