To some, it’s just the latest example of Donald Trump falling victim to Fox News and mindlessly tweeting soundbites from the network.
To others, it’s yet more proof that even if Trump wasn’t always an out-and-out racist, old age has transformed him into a caricature of his younger self, and overt nods to bigotry are one consequence of that metamorphosis.
Whatever the case, Trump’s Saturday morning tweets about “rat infested” Baltimore where the president says “no human being” would want to live, sparked a firestorm.
Read more: Trump Parrots Fox News Segment In Racially-Charged Elijah Cummings Screed
The backlash had “#INFESTED” trending on Twitter all day Saturday and the criticism poured in from all over the country. At the same time, Trump’s supporters came out in droves.
And so, the battle lines were drawn anew. Another weekend pitting Americans against Americans thanks entirely to Donald Trump doing his part to amplify tailor-made propaganda Fox produced just for people like him. (There was a time when Trump had some conception of the symbiotic relationship between the network and his White House, but at this juncture, he is clearly just as brainwashed as the rest of their viewership.)
“Elijah Cummings is a champion in the Congress and the country for civil rights and economic justice, a beloved leader in Baltimore, and deeply valued colleague”, Nancy Pelosi said. “We all reject racist attacks against him and support his steadfast leadership.”
“Elijah Cummings is the conscience of our caucus. When we need moral clarity, he provides it. When we need direction, he is our guiding light”, Adam Schiff remarked. “He’s a better man than Trump will ever be, and that’s what threatens the President.”
Bernie Sanders was more direct. “Here’s what’s really going on: Elijah Cummings has been busy revealing the failures of the Trump administration and exposing the greed of Trump’s friends in the pharmaceutical industry, and our racist president doesn’t like it”, he said, flatly.
Trump doubled down, retweeting messages from supporters and denigrating Baltimore further. On Sunday, he attempted to splinter Democrats again by alluding to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“Someone please explain to Nancy Pelosi, who was recently called racist by those in her own party, that there is nothing wrong with bringing out the very obvious fact that Congressman Elijah Cummings has done a very poor job for his district and the City of Baltimore”, the president tweeted.
Of course, he didn’t provide any actual evidence to support his vitriol, but rather simply referred his followers to the same videos Fox ran on Saturday. “Just take a look, the facts speak far louder than words!”, Trump said. Again, he did not link to or mention any of “the facts”. Fortunately, The Baltimore Sun did. To wit:
In pointing to the 7th, the president wasn’t hoping his supporters would recognize landmarks like Johns Hopkins Hospital, perhaps the nation’s leading medical center. He wasn’t conjuring images of the U.S. Social Security Administration, where they write the checks that so many retired and disabled Americans depend upon. It wasn’t about the beauty of the Inner Harbor or the proud history of Fort McHenry. And it surely wasn’t about the economic standing of a district where the median income is actually above the national average.
Trump on Sunday refused to let it go, accusing Democrats of “play[ing] the Race Card” while not doing anything for “our Nation’s great African American people”.
After that, he called Cummings a failure again, and said this about San Francisco:
Speaking of failing badly, has anyone seen what is happening to Nancy Pelosi’s district in San Francisco. It is not even recognizeable [sic] lately. Something must be done before it is too late. The Dems should stop wasting time on the Witch Hunt Hoax and start focusing on our Country!
Trump also quoted Jeanine Pirro, who, you’re reminded, was suspended from Fox in March for launching into an over-the-top Islamophobic attack on Ilhan Omar.
“If it weren’t for Donald Trump, we would never know how corrupt these Democrats are, we would never know for sure that there was a Deep State”, Pirro said over the weekend. “Now we know it”.
That kind of rhetoric is poisonous to the country. To Trump’s base, which is famously predisposed to wild conspiracy theories pushed by the likes of Alex Jones, the “deep state” narrative as perpetuated by Fox’s cast of cartoon characters is extraordinarily compelling, as is the globalist conspiracy fairy tale. Fox News is tantamount to indoctrination and radicalization.
The full Baltimore Sun Op-Ed cited above is scathing to say the least. You can read it below. It’s called: “Better to have a few rats than to be one”.
By The Baltimore Sun’s Editorial Board
In case anyone missed it, the president of the United States had some choice words to describe Maryland’s 7th congressional district on Saturday morning. Here are the key phrases: “no human being would want to live there,” it is a “very dangerous & filthy place,” “Worst in the USA” and, our personal favorite: It is a “rat and rodent infested mess.” He wasn’t really speaking of the 7th as a whole. He failed to mention Ellicott City, for example, or Baldwin or Monkton or Prettyboy, all of which are contained in the sprawling yet oddly-shaped district that runs from western Howard County to southern Harford County. No, Donald Trump’s wrath was directed at Baltimore and specifically at Rep. Elijah Cummings, the 68-year-old son of a former South Carolina sharecropper who has represented the district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1996.
It’s not hard to see what’s going on here. The congressman has been a thorn in this president’s side, and Mr. Trump sees attacking African American members of Congress as good politics, as it both warms the cockles of the white supremacists who love him and causes so many of the thoughtful people who don’t to scream. President Trump bad-mouthed Baltimore in order to make a point that the border camps are “clean, efficient & well run,” which, of course, they are not – unless you are fine with all the overcrowding, squalor, cages and deprivation to be found in what the Department of Homeland Security’s own inspector-general recently called “a ticking time bomb.”
In pointing to the 7th, the president wasn’t hoping his supporters would recognize landmarks like Johns Hopkins Hospital, perhaps the nation’s leading medical center. He wasn’t conjuring images of the U.S. Social Security Administration, where they write the checks that so many retired and disabled Americans depend upon. It wasn’t about the beauty of the Inner Harbor or the proud history of Fort McHenry. And it surely wasn’t about the economic standing of a district where the median income is actually above the national average. No, he was returning to an old standby of attacking an African American lawmaker from a majority black district on the most emotional and bigoted of arguments. It was only surprising that there wasn’t room for a few classic phrases like “you people” or “welfare queens” or “crime-ridden ghettos” or a suggestion that the congressman “go back” to where he came from.
This is a president who will happily debase himself at the slightest provocation. And given Mr. Cummings’ criticisms of U.S. border policy, the various investigations he has launched as chairman of the House Oversight Committee, his willingness to call Mr. Trump a racist for his recent attacks on the freshmen congresswomen, and the fact that “Fox & Friends” had recently aired a segment critical of the city, slamming Baltimore must have been irresistible in a Pavlovian way. Fox News rang the bell, the president salivated and his thumbs moved across his cell phone into action.
As heartening as it has been to witness public figures rise to Charm City’s defense on Saturday, from native daughter House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young, we would above all remind Mr. Trump that the 7th District, Baltimore included, is part of the United States that he is supposedly governing. The White House has far more power to effect change in this city, for good or ill, than any single member of Congress including Mr. Cummings. If there are problems here, rodents included, they are as much his responsibility as anyone’s, perhaps more because he holds the most powerful office in the land.
Finally, while we would not sink to name-calling in the Trumpian manner – or ruefully point out that he failed to spell the congressman’s name correctly (it’s Cummings, not Cumming) – we would tell the most dishonest man to ever occupy the Oval Office, the mocker of war heroes, the gleeful grabber of women’s private parts, the serial bankrupter of businesses, the useful idiot of Vladimir Putin and the guy who insisted there are “good people” among murderous neo-Nazis that he’s still not fooling most Americans into believing he’s even slightly competent in his current post. Or that he possesses a scintilla of integrity. Better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one.
And Mitch just sits there on his thumb and continues to drag the Republican Party down.
That editorial was glorious.. mic drop!