No, Donald Trump’s Baltimore Attacks Are Not Comparable To Bernie Sanders’s ‘Third World’ Comments

President Trump’s Twitter tirade started at 6:30 AM in Washington on Monday.

Nearly four hours later, it was still going.

“Crazy Bernie Sanders recently equated the City of Baltimore to a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY!”, Trump shouted, following up after attacking Rev. Al Sharpton who the president said “Hates Whites & Cops!”

The actual, verbatim quote from Sanders was delivered in 2015 at the Freddie Gray Empowerment Center. “Anyone who took the walk that we took around this neighborhood would not think you’re in a wealthy nation”, Sanders said. “You would think that you were in a Third World country”.

“Based on that statement, I assume that Bernie must now be labeled a Racist, just as a Republican would if he used that term and standard!”, Trump disingenuously contended.

It won’t surprise you to learn that Fox News dug up Sanders’s comments on Sunday in an effort to defend Trump. That’s nice of Fox to do considering it was the network’s initial coverage of Elijah Cummings the president was parroting when he attacked Baltimore on Saturday morning.

Here, for reference, is the clip of Sanders:

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Fox published an article online which attempted to equate Trump’s comments with that clip. Predictability, the network’s “reporter” didn’t even attempt to provide the context.

Most obviously, Bernie Sanders does not have a long history of saying things that are racist and hasn’t spent the last three weeks incessantly berating people of color on Twitter.

Beyond that, Fox (and, subsequently, a handful of other conservative media outlets who often piggyback on Fox’s message) failed to tell the whole story. Surprisingly, they did link to the Baltimore Sun‘s coverage of Sanders’s remarks. Here is a more nuanced assessment from the Sun ca. December, 2015:

Hoping to reach African-American voters nationally in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday toured the West Baltimore neighborhood where Freddie Gray was arrested – and likened the poverty he observed to that of the Third World.

The senator, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, walked the streets of Sandtown-Winchester for about 20 minutes, joined by community leaders and a swarm of cameras that mostly blocked his view of boarded rowhomes and crumbling marble steps. A handful of residents joined the spectacle, and occasionally broke out in chants of Gray’s name.

The scene provided dramatic visuals of the economic inequality Sanders has made the center of his campaign, offering a new backdrop from which to argue for a higher minimum wage, tuition-free public college and tougher federal regulations of the nation’s banking sector.

As you can see, Sanders’s comments are not in any way, shape or form comparable to Trump’s efforts to denigrate Elijah Cummings by castigating his district as “rat infested” and “filthy”.

Sanders was trying to make a point about poverty in America in order to bolster his socialist message – that would be the same message that Trump decries as anti-American.

Trump, on the other hand, is trying to undermine an African American lawmaker who just happens to preside over a powerful House committee in charge of oversight.

Don’t let it be lost on you that Trump sued Elijah Cummings in April. Again: Trump is involved in pending litigation against the African American congressman who is the subject of his attacks.

Attacks which continued into mid-morning on Monday.

“Baltimore can be brought back even to new heights of success and glory, but not with King Elijah and that crew”, the president sneered. “When the leaders of Baltimore want to see the City rise again, I am in a very beautiful oval shaped office waiting for your call!”