DERRY, New Hampshire — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a 2020 Democratic candidate for president, responded to President Trump’s criticism of House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings, calling his tweets on Saturday racist.
“Donald Trump, once again, is a racist who makes ever more outrageous racist remarks. It is insulting both to the congressman and the people he represents. Elijah Cummings is one of my dearest friends,” Warren told reporters during a campaign stop.
“He is a good man through and through and he fights for what is just in this country. To be attacked by a president issuing racist tweets is beyond insulting. It’s disgusting. This president brought shame to himself and this office,” the Massachusetts senator added.
Trump tweeted about Cummings and the condition of the Democrat’s West Baltimore district Saturday, calling the black congressman a “brutal bully” and describing his black-majority district as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” and “more dangerous” than the southern border.
He later added that Cummings, “spends all of his time trying to hurt innocent people through ‘Oversight.’ He does NOTHING for his very poor, very dangerous and very badly run district! Take a look….”
Earlier on Saturday, Republican strategist Kimberly Klacik appeared on Fox and Friends and accused Cummings of hypocrisy over having concern for conditions at southern border detainment centers over constituents in his own district.
“So, I went into the district to basically ask people if they were scared of Trump,” Klacik said, referring to Cummings’ comments last week on a talk show that his constituents were fearful of the president.
“And as I go in and I start talking to people, I realized just what the living conditions are, for not just for the residents but even the children there and what they’ve been playing around,” Klacik said. “There’s abandoned rowhomes filled with trash, homeless addicts, empty needles that they have used, and it’s really right next door. So, it’s attracting rodents, cockroaches, you name it.”
Other Democrats criticized Trump over his tweets Saturday, including from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and 2020 Democratic front-runner Joe Biden. Baltimore Mayor Bernard Young said Trump is “a disappointment to the people of Baltimore, our country, and to the world.”
