President Trump has encountered a serious backlash from media critics and political rivals over his ongoing comments about Rep. Elijah Cummings regarding the woes of Baltimore — a city which is part of the Maryland Democrat’s territory.
In a series of tweets over the last four days, Mr. Trump cited Baltimore’s crime statistics and severe infrastructure issues, suggesting Mr. Cummings was “corrupt” and a “bully” — and that billions of dollars sent to aid the city had been misspent or even stolen.
The president was deemed a “racist’ by multiple news organizations, including The Atlantic, which said the attacks on Mr. Cummings “don’t distract form impeachment.”
Washington Times opinion editor and columnist Charles Hurt, however, had a another take.
THE A-TEAM: @TheJuanWilliams @CharlesHurt @theabstoddard discussed the president blasting @RepCummings over “corrupt government” in Baltimore #nine2noon pic.twitter.com/0wsyp471xy
— America’s Newsroom (@AmericaNewsroom) July 30, 2019
“Only in Washington would somebody see the president attacking Elijah Cummings and say, ’Oh, this is all about race.’ It’s not about race,” Mr. Hurt said during an appearance Tuesday on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom.”
“The president is talking about the Russian collusion fairy tale. He’s talking about the fact that Elijah Cummings went after his Homeland Security director who is desperately trying to fix the crisis at the border. Donald Trump is going after issues. And what do you get in Washington? All you get is ’Oh, this is racist.’ It’s not racist,” Mr. Hurt said.
“President Trump is being combative, as he always is. He is an equal opportunity offender when it comes to being combative. But this idea in Washington that everything is about race is crazy,” Mr. Hurt concluded.
“You have to understand is there is a pattern here, not to just be taken in isolation,” countered commentator Juan Williams, citing the president.
“This is a guy who went after John Lewis, the congressman from Georgia. He went after Frederica Wilson, the congresswoman from Florida,” Mr. Williams continued, even as Mr. Hurt and anchor Bill Hemmer noted that the president had attacked politicians who were not black.
“When you take this in its totality, don’t you see a fairness, and a president who is being equitable on the overall issue? He doesn’t see it as color, doesn’t see it as race . He just sees what he feels is right ,and what is wrong,” Mr. Hemmer said.
“No I think this is acting,” Mr. Williams replied, adding that Mr. Trump was “without any sense of the history of race in this country.”
• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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