President Trump targeted Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings on Twitter for a second day Sunday — as the tweets brought rebukes from Democrats and a dꦉefense from a top White House adviser who claimed the president was simply punching back.
“Congressman Elijah Cummings has done a very poo𒊎r job for his district and the City of Baltimore,” the president wrote, adding that the Democ﷽rats “always play the Race Card” and that Cummings “has failed badly.”
The president resumed tweeting about Cummings, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, after a string of tweets on Saturday in which he described the congressman as a “brutal bully” and his Mar🍃yland district as “rat 🗹and rodent infested.”
On Sunday, Trump r🌳eferred to Cummings, who is African-American, as “racist” without any explanation — and suggested he “focus more of his energy on helping the good people of his district and Baltimore itself.”
Cumming🐼s didn’t respond to the new tweets on Sunday, but on Saturday he said, “I go home to my district daily. Each morning, I wake up, and I go and🤪 fight for my neighbors.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate, called Cummings “one the most decent and outstanding members of the House of Re✅presentatives.”
“It’s unbelievable that ✅we have a president of the United States who attacks American📖 cities, who attacks Americans, who attacks somebody who is a friend of mine,” Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
But acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said Trump is just retaliating against Cummings for criticizing acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin Mc🔴Aleenan earlier this month over the administration’s family-separation policy and conditions at the southern border.
“What this is about, though, is the president fighting back against what he saw as being i🦹llegitimate attacks about the border,” Mulvaney said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who was📖 among four minority Democratic congresswomen attacked by Trump this month, said the president continues to trash American cities.
“Our president has a hate agenda,” she s💦aid on CNN. “He doesn’t have a�� policy agenda. That’s what he falls down on.”
Rep. Will Hurd, the only African-American Republican in the House, said Trump’s tweets about Cumming༺s aren’t the same as the “go back” postings about Tlaib and her three colleagues — Rep﷽s. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley.
“I wouldn’t be doing those. I wouldn’t be tweet🔯ing this way,” the Texan sa𝔉id on ABC’s “This Week.”
“Chairman Cummings is someone I worked with closely on all kinds of legislation,” Hurd added. “He is someone that cares passionately about his community and has been working tirelessly his entire adult life on behalf of his country and 𓂃his community.”