Trump's Racism Infests the Republican Party
Back in February, Representative Elijah Cummings, a black Democrat, stood up for his friend, Representative Mark Meadows, a white Republican.
Members of Congress were fielding the testimony of President Donald Trumps former attorney, Michael Cohen, when Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat, accused Meadows of racism for trotting out a female black Trump appointee as a stage prop during the hearing. My nieces and nephews are people of color, not many people know that, Meadows responded, fuming. It's racist to suggest that I asked her to come in here for that reason.
Meadows, who recommended during the 2012 presidential campaign that Barack Obama be sent back to Kenya, also reminded the House of what he described as his record of combating racism. He asked Cummings, chair of the committee convening the Cohen hearing, to strike Tlaibs comments from the record. Mr. Chairman, you and I have a personal relationship thats not based on color, Meadows noted.
If theres anyone whos sensitive with regard to race its me, the son of former sharecroppers, Cummings replied. You're one of my best friends, I know that shocks a lot of people. But you are. And I can see and I feel your pain. Cummings encouraged Tlaib to clarify that she wasnt calling Meadows a racist personally, calmed down Meadows himself, and then moved the hearing along.
Over this past weekend Trump put Cummings and his Baltimore district in his crosshairs, tweeting at him 17 times in a racially-charged salvo of alternately bigoted, hostile and inaccurate insults that commenced at 7:14 a.m. on Saturday and concluded at 6:49 a.m. on Monday. Baltimore and its neighboring areas, the president allowed, were a very dangerous & filthy place and a rat and rodent infested mess where no human being would want to live. Cummings was incompetent and a brutal bully responsible for Baltimores problems, a racist who spends all of his time trying to hurt innocent people. As he has done before, Trump also retweeted the musings of a far-right British pundit who is a self-described racist to make his case against Cummings.
A broad, diverse swath of Baltimore residents and supporters responded to Trump by coming to Cummingss and their citys defense, acknowledging that Baltimore had myriad problems, including crime and poverty, but was hardly the noxious monolith the president was slagging. #WeAreBaltimore became a ubiquitous hashtag and a rallying cry on social media. Perhaps the most poignant and powerful voice in all of that was a CNN anchor, Victor Blackwell, who was born in Baltimore and noted during a pointed, emotional broadcast on Saturday that Trump frequently uses the words infested and infestation when describing the homes or countries of people of color.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-07-29/trump-s-baltimore-elijah-cummings-racism-is-fine-with-republicans
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)Faux pas
(14,681 posts)they were racist long before he showed up. Now they can just revel in it.
dalton99a
(81,516 posts)Kaiserguy
(740 posts)even when they claim to be. The first time they have to step-up to the plate to help you they are nowhere to be found.
Crowman2009
(2,497 posts)It just got brought out into the open like rigor mortis.
Everyman Jackal
(271 posts)is backing Trump about Baltimore. Does anyone remember the term "house nigger"?