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By AFRO Staff
President Trump on July 27 launched the latest in a series of attacks against lawmakers of color.
In a Saturday morning Twitter tirade, Trump called Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., who is African American, a “brutal bully” and denigrated his Baltimore district as a “rodent infested mess” and “the worst in the USA.”
Rep, Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous. His district is considered the Worst in the USA……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2019
The president’s latest rant seemed to be prompted by Cummings’ voiced concerns over the inhumane conditions at detention centers near the Mexican border.
“Rep, Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous,” Trump said.
The president defended the border operation as being “clean, efficient & well run” though crowded.
Conversely, he alleged, Cummings’ district is “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”
“If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place,” he concluded.
Cummings responded later, tweeting: “Mr. President, I go home to my district daily. Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors. I go home to my district daily. 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.”
Mr. President, I go home to my district daily. 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.
— Elijah E. Cummings (@RepCummings) July 27, 2019
The Baltimore Democrat has been one of the more vocal opponents of Trump administration policies, including its handling of the migrant crisis. At a recent hearing of the House Oversight and Reform Committee—which Cummings chairs—he challenged Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan’s assertion that the agency was doing its “level best” to manage detention facilities.
“What does that mean?” he asked. “When a child is sitting in their own feces, can’t take a shower? Come on man. What’s that about? None of us would have our children in that position.”
Like Cummings, other Capitol Hill legislators of color who has criticized the White House has drawn his ire.
Earlier this month, he told Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) to “go back” to the “totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”
Critics have characterized these and other statements, including the latest about Cummings’ majority-Black, as racist.
Baltimore Mayor Jack Young in a statement called out Trump for denigrating Cummings and his city, saying it was “unacceptable.”
“Mr. Trump’s rhetoric is hurtful and dangerous to the people he’s sworn to represent,” he said. “As the Mayor of Baltimore, I won’t stand for anyone, not even the alleged Leader of the Free World, attacking our great City or our representative to Congress.”
He added, “Mr. Trump, you are a disappointment to the people of Baltimore, our country, and to the world.”
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