TRUMP ATTACKS A WELL RESPECTED HOUSE CHAIRMAN

…The way many people see our president

Trump called Elijah Cummings’ Maryland district, a “rat and rodent infested place”.

It has become obvious that if anyone disagrees or says anything against the president, he will us his twitter feed and go directly after that person.  He has done this against any of those that are campaigning to run against him in 2020 and he goes after any individual that uses the “i’ word (impeachment) with his name.

Since the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings, it is his job to initiated the investigations into the Trump administration’s questionable operations and their inappropriate policies, including the recent reports of inhumane treatment at migrant detention centers, Cummings has come to the president’s attention and therefore has earned a Trump tweet attack.

As usual, Trump borrowed from a Fox & Friends segment on the same topic, and he tweeted that Cummings’s district is “FAR WORSE and more dangerous” than conditions at the border. He suggested Cummings focus his attention instead on cleaning up “this very dangerous & filthy place.”

Trump’s attack on Cummings is very similar to his recent racist attacks on four minority congresswomen who he said should “go back” to the “crime infested” places they were originally from and to fix them before trying to improve America.  All four women are U.S. citizens, and only one was born abroad.

Cummings had stated: The administration's policy has created 'child internment camps',  He said: “The United States should be better than keeping children away from their parents in internment camps."

In a series of three tweets, Trump wrote: “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.”

Per the president: “As proven last week during a congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cumming 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.  Why is so much money sent to the Elijah Cummings district when it is considered the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States. No human being would want to live there. Where is all this money going? How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!”

Trump even called Elijah’s district as a “rat and rodent infested place”.

Cummings responded a few hours later, defending his dedication to his constituents and pivoting to Trump’s failure to work with him on lowering drug prices.

“Mr. President, I go home to my district daily. Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors,” Cummings tweeted: “It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents.”

Baltimore is the third most dangerous city in the country behind Detroit and St. Louis, according to the FBI’s 2017 crime report. But Maryland’s 7th district, which Cummings has represented since 1996, includes about half of Baltimore city and has a median household income of around $60,000 and a higher percentage of college graduates than the country as a whole.

Baltimore Mayor Bernard Young released a statement defending both Cummings and his city, calling the president a “disappointment to the people of Baltimore, our country and to the world.”

“It’s completely unacceptable for the political leader of our country to denigrate a vibrant American City like Baltimore, and to viciously attack US Representative Elijah Cummings a patriot and a hero,” he said. “Mr. Trump’s rhetoric is hurtful and dangerous to the people he’s sworn to represent.”

Trump isn’t the first politician to comment on Baltimore’s issues, but the other pols have done so from a position of wanting to help.

Notably, Ben Carson, the only black member of Trump’s Cabinet, made his career as a neurosurgeon in Baltimore.  A spokesman at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which Carson now leads, did not respond to a request for comment.

Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), whose 2020 presidential campaign headquarters is in Baltimore, tweeted that she’s “proud” to have hers based there.  “Baltimore has become home to my team and it’s disgraceful the president has chosen to start his morning disparaging this great American city,” she wrote.

Many other Democrats rushed to Cummings’s defense. Former vice president Joe Biden, also a presidential candidate, said the Maryland congressman “is one of the finest people I’ve served with.”

“It is despicable for you to attack him and the people of Baltimore this way,” Biden tweeted. “Once again you have proved yourself unfit to hold the office. A President is supposed to lift this nation up. Not tear it down.”

Trump’s tweets and the Fox News report seem to be in response to a July 18 hearing, at which Cummings became furious when acting homeland security secretary Kevin McAleenan said his department was doing its best with a difficult situation.

“When a child is sitting in their own feces, can’t take a shower?. . . I want to concentrate on these children, and I want to make sure that they’re okay. . . . We are the greatest country in the world,” Cummings bellowed. “Come on. We’re better than that.”

But the president’s problem with Cummings may also have to do with the chairman securing permission from his committee to subpoena all e-mails and texts dealing with official government business sent to or from administration officials on their personal accounts.  This would include communications to and from the president’s daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, who reportedly have used private e-mails to carry out White House work.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. was a US congressman representing parts of Baltimore and then he became the mayor of the city.  She forcefully defended Cummings, calling him “a champion in the Congress and the country for civil rights and economic justice, a beloved leader in Baltimore, and deeply valued colleague.  We all reject racist attacks against him and support his steadfast leadership. Pelosi (D-CA) tweeted.

Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who served in the House alongside Cummings for many years, also tweeted praise for his colleague and condemned the president.  “Elijah Cummings grew up facing racist bullies like Trump and learned to confront them with qualities unknown to Trump: courage and integrity,” Van Hollen wrote. “The great people of Baltimore have something Trump craves but will never have as he degrades the Office of the President: dignity.”

In an emotional statement about Trump’s latest comments, CNN’s Victor Blackwell pointed out that Trump has often used the word “infested” to refer to places where black and brown people live. To Trump’s contention that “no human being” would want to live in Baltimore, Blackwell said, his eyes filled with tears, that he did.

“I don’t want to sound self-righteous, but people get up and go to work there,” he said. “They care for their families there. They love their children who pledge allegiance to the flag just like people who live in districts of congressmen who support you, sir. They are Americans, too.”

Trump’s statements are what we call “race baiting” statements, and they are totally the opposite of what our president should be offering the American public.  This president makes me ashamed of him as a representative of this great nation.  We are all, except for native Americans, a nation of emigrants, and that is our strength.  Oh yes, in the past, I have been guilty of saying things about those people that might look, or are different from myself.  But I learned many years ago how, when given the opportunity to get to know these “other” people, they have no different feelings than that of myself, on dealing with all the same issues of dealing with and living our lives.

Obviously, Mr Trump was not raised that way and his family has a long history of being highly prejudiced against anyone that isn’t white.

Many people today are starting to say that Trump’s MAGA campaign has been interpreted incorrectly.  It should instead have been called a MAWA campaign. 

MAKE AMERICA WHITE AGAIN!

I can’t say I disagree with that as the president’s real feelings about his attitude for his presidential campaigning.

Copyright G. Ater 2019