'Better to have rats than be one': Baltimore responds to Trump's attacks

Baltimore’s most famous newspaper responded in kind over the weekend as Donald Trump hurled incendiary tweets about the “rat and rodent infested” city.

“Better to have a few rats than to be one” was the headline Baltimore Sun editorial board ran with Saturday after the president’s vicious insults, which many saw as racist attacks against the majority black city and its senior Democratic congressman of colour, Elijah Cummings.

“It’s not hard to see what’s going on here,” the editorial board wrote Saturday night, after Mr Trump tweeted throughout the morning about Mr Cummings, writing at one point, “Cumming [sic] District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”

The paper said Mr Cummings has been a “thorn in this president’s side” as the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, which has steadily investigated Mr Trump’s financial dealings while attempting to get a hold of his personal tax records.

“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,” the editorial board wrote.

The president added Mr Cummings to a growing list of politicians of colour he’s attacked in recent weeks, notably telling freshmen Democrats Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar to “go back” to their countries earlier this month. His North Carolina rally that same week became contentious when he attacked Ms Omar — who came to the US as a refugee from Somalia — and paused for at least 13 seconds while his supporters loudly chanted: “Send her back!”

“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,” Mr Trump tweeted on Saturday. “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!”

The Baltimore Sun editorial board said Mr Trump was effectively using Baltimore to deflect from the growing humanitarian crisis near the US-Mexico border amid overcrowding at migrant detention centres and an influx of incoming migrants seeking asylum.

“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,” the board wrote.

“This is a president who will happily debase himself at the slightest provocation,” it continued. “And given Mr Cummings’ criticisms of US 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.”

Mr Trump’s incendiary comments were the subject of swift backlash from top Democrats — including Nancy Pelosi, who said in a statement over the weekend “we all reject racist attacks against [Mr Cummings]” — and many others.

Jack Young, the mayor of Baltimore, described Mr Trump’s attacks as “completely unacceptable” and said Baltimore was a “vibrant American city” in a Saturday tweet.

Mr Cummings himself responded to the attacks in a tweet over the weekend, writing, “Mr. President, I go home to my district daily.”

“Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbours,” he added. “It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents."

CNN’s Victor Blackwell also delivered a passionate rebuke of the president’s comments in a segment that has since gone viral, recalling his own experience living in Baltimore. “I don’t want to sound self-righteous, but people get up and go to work there,” the anchor 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.”