Doubling Down on Elijah Cummings Assaults, Trump Units Himself Up for One other Embattled Week

No matter victory President Trump claimed over final week’s Mueller listening to seems to already be in his rearview. After drawing widespread condemnation for Saturday assaults on Democratic consultant Elijah Cummings and his so-claimed “disgusting, rat and rodent infested” district of Baltimore, Maryland, Trump doubled down on the sentiment Sunday.

“Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully,” Trump started on Saturday, “shouting and screaming on the nice males & ladies of Border Patrol about situations on the Southern Border, when truly his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and extra harmful.” The president went on to assert “Cumming [sic] District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess,” questioning funds allotted to the Home Committee on Oversight and Reform chairman’s district and including “No human being would wish to stay there.” Critics rapidly linked his language to that of his latest racist assaults on “squad” congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib, likewise condemning the remarks.

Atop Cummings’s personal response, Home speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted that Cummings was “a champion within the Congress and the nation for civil rights and financial justice, a beloved chief in Baltimore, and deeply valued colleague.” CNN anchor Victor Blackwell delivered an emotional refutation of Trump’s assaults on his hometown, and even the Baltimore Solar printed a scathing editorial that learn “Higher to have some vermin dwelling in your neighborhood than to be one.”

Unmoved, and maybe studying from his wedge-driving “squad” response, Trump rapidly intensified the assaults. After retweeting circumstantial movies and testimony of situations in sure areas of Baltimore—even tagging Cummings within the tweets—Trump reiterated his criticisms on Sunday and prolonged them to Pelosi as effectively. “Somebody please clarify to Nancy Pelosi,” he started, “who was lately known as racist by these in her personal occasion, that there’s nothing incorrect with bringing out the very apparent proven fact that Congressman Elijah Cummings has accomplished a really poor job for his district and the Metropolis of Baltimore.” Absent a hint of irony, he continued that “Democrats all the time play the Race Card,” and touted his oft-repeated statistics of African-American unemployment.

Trump defenders naturally sought to pivot Trump’s feedback towards border protection, reasonably than racial implications. Performing White Home chief of employees Mick Mulvaney advised Chris Wallace on Fox Information Sunday that “that is concerning the president combating again towards what he noticed as being illegitimate assaults concerning the border,” and that “It has completely zero to do with race.” Wallace was fast to level out parallels with Trump’s assault on minority congresswomen, noting “No person objects to the president defending his border insurance policies, however this appears, Mick, to be the worst form of racial stereotyping . . . . black congressman, majority black district.”

New York Consultant Jerry Nadler, alternatively, argued to George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week that Trump merely sought to distract from implications of the Mueller testimony with one other controversy.