President Trump was hit with new accusations of racism Saturday after he attacked a prominent black lawmaker and branded the majority African American city of Baltimore an “infested mess,” according to an AFP report.
Edited by: JV Staff
Trump’s comments came in the form of tweets that focused on Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, a vocal critic of the Trump administration and the head of the House Oversight Committee. Cummings district covers much of Baltimore.
“Cumming (sic) District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess,” the president wrote, calling it “the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States.”
“No human being would want to live there,” he said, in an attack ostensibly provoked by Cummings’ criticism of the harsh conditions facing would-be asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border.
AFP reported that the morning tweets ignited a firestorm of criticism, less than two weeks after the House of Representatives condemned Trump for “racist” comments targeting “The Squad” – four first-term Democratic congresswomen who are on record as making numerous statements that are vehemently anti-Israel and anti-Jewish. Trump also said that if they hate America they “can go back from where they came.”
The Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, accused Trump of a “racist” attack on a “champion … of civil rights and economic justice, a beloved leader in Baltimore, and deeply valued colleague.”
“We all reject racist attacks against him (Cummings)” wrote Pelosi, who was born in Baltimore and whose father served as mayor of the city, according to the AFP report.
Joe Biden, the Democratic front-runner to challenge Trump in 2020, attacked Trump directly on Twitter.
“It is despicable for you to attack him and the people of Baltimore this way,” Biden wrote. “Once again you have proved yourself unfit to hold the office. A President is supposed to lift this nation up. Not tear it down.”
AFP reported that six more contenders for the White House in 2020 voiced their condemnation of Trump’s comments on Cummings. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker tweeted footage of a black CNN anchor and Baltimore native who broke down on air while reacting to the attack on his home city.
“This is painful. This is a moral, defining moment in America,” wrote Booker. “Silence is toxic complicity.”
Democratic 2020 contender Kamala Harris, a California senator who like Booker is black, likewise weighed in, saying she was “proud” to have her campaign headquarters in the Cummings district and calling Trump’s attack “disgraceful.”
The city’s Democratic mayor, Bernard “Jack” Young, also black, meanwhile rejected Trump’s rhetoric as “hurtful and dangerous.”
“It’s completely unacceptable for the political leader of our country to denigrate a vibrant American City like Baltimore, and to viciously attack U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings,” Young wrote in a statement. (AFP)
