People that still think current President Donald Trump is not a bit on the racist side need to check themselves and watch the news. Trump attacked another prominent African American lawmaker on Saturday, tweeting that his Baltimore district is a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess, reports multiple news sources, including CNN.
Trump’s morning tirade against Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, is the latest verbal assault against a minority member of Congress who is a frequent critic of the President. Two weekends ago, Trump – in racist language that was later condemned by a House resolution – told four Democratic congresswomen of color to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Three of the four were born in the US, and the fourth is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Trump attacked Cummings, 68, who is originally from Baltimore and represents Maryland’s 7th Congressional District, for erupting at acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan over border conditions during a congressional hearing on July 28. Cummings’ committee has also launched a number of investigations into the Trump administration related to Trump’s finances and White House practices, including security clearances and Hatch Act violations.
The President’s attacks, which went on to mention the oversight investigation and another Democrat-represented district, continued into Sunday. The President on Saturday suggested that conditions in Cummings’ district, which is majority Black and includes parts of Baltimore, are “far worse and more dangerous” than those at the U.S./Mexico border.
“If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place,” Trump wrote, arguing that Cummings’ “district is considered the worst in the USA” and “no human being would want to live there.”
In Cummings’ district, about 52 percent of the population is Black, while nearly 36 percent is White, according to U.S. Census estimates. The President gave no indication of the basis of the claim, but the tweets followed a segment that aired an hour earlier on Fox News, in which a Republican strategist said conditions in Cummings’ district were worse than those at the southern border.
“Mr. President, I go home to my district daily,” Cummings wrote on Twitter Saturday in response. “Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors. It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents.”
Cummings told ABC News recently that Trump’s “go back” remarks aimed at the four congresswomen brought back memories of the racism he faced as a boy growing up in Baltimore in the 1960s, echoing the same “very painful” racist insults he had heard during childhood. Trump has used similar language before to criticize Democrat Rep. John Lewis (Georgia), a civil rights icon, and the Georgia district Lewis represents, which includes most of Atlanta.
