The media worked overtime on Saturday to paint President Donald Trump as a racist for tweeting about the conditions in the district in West Baltimore represented by Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD). CNN’s Victor Blackwell, for example, lashed out at Trump for suggesting Baltimore was “infested” with rats, claiming the infestation language from Trump was some racist code for black and brown people.
"'Infested.' That's usually reserved for references to rodents and insects, but we've seen the president invoke 'infestation' to criticize lawmakers before. You see a pattern here?" he said on-air, nearly in tears.
"'Rat Film,' a documentary that takes the decades-long fight waged against Baltimore’s rat population and uses it as a lens through which to look at how the city has addressed myriad social issues over the decades, airs tonight on PBS," The Baltimore Sun reported in February 2018.
In a series of Saturday tweets, Trump slammed Mr. Cummings for neglecting his district’s major problems.
"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," he wrote. "His district is considered the Worst in the USA. As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cumming[s'] 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."
