Baltimore has registered a grim new record in its crime statistics. Over the holiday weekend, the city suffered its 343rd homicide of the year, surpassing its previous high of 342 and setting a new record for killings per capita.
After seeing declining numbers, homicides began to increase dramatically in 2015 following the infamous case of Freddie Gray, which some blame for encouraging a more &#8220;hands off&#8221; approach by law enforcement.
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&#8220;Baltimore police recorded the 343rd homicide of the year Saturday with the fatal shooting of a 32-year-old man in the Belair-Edison neighborhood,&#8221; <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-cr-12-29-20191229-d2mxtvzxance7gwo2rre3lbteq-story.html">The Baltimore Sun</a> reports. &#8220;Shortly before 11 p.m., city officers found the man lying in the 4300 block of Dudley Ave. in an area south of Belair Road and two blocks from Herring Run Park. The man had been shot multiple times and later died in an area hospital.&#8221;
The outlet notes that the murder followed just two days without a fatal shooting in the city. The previous murder took place Thursday night.
As <a href="https://wtop.com/baltimore/2019/12/baltimore-breaks-city-record-for-killings-per-capita-in-2019/">The Associated Press</a> details, with its 343rd fatal shooting of the year, the city has now officially reached &#8220;a historically high homicide rate.&#8221;
&#8220;With just over 600,000 residents, the city hit a historically high homicide rate of about 57 per 100,000 people after recent relentless gunfire saw eight people shot — three fatally — in one day and nine others — one fatally — another day,&#8221; AP reported Friday. &#8220;The new rate eclipses that of 1993, when the city had a record 353 killings but was much more populous before years of population exodus.&#8221;
To highlight how dire the situation is in Baltimore, AP notes that New York City, which has a population of over 8 million compared to Baltimore&#8217;s 600,000 residents, had recorded 306 homicides through Dec. 15.
Baltimore&#8217;s previous record for the number of homicides in a year was 342, the number fatally shot in the city in both 2017 and 2015. Beginning in 2015, the city has recorded at least 300 homicides per year.
After seeing a decline in the murder rate, killings spiked dramatically in 2015, the same year that Freddie Gray, an African American Baltimore resident, died while in police custody. Gray&#8217;s death caused a massive uproar in the city, sparking protests and riots, in which police were reportedly told by the mayor to &#8220;stand down.&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/source-baltimore-mayor-ordered-police-to-stand-down">Fox News</a> reported at the time:
<blockquote>
Despite a firm denial by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, a senior law enforcement source charges that she gave an order for police to stand down as riots broke out Monday night, raising more questions about whether some of the violence and looting could have been prevented.
The source, who is involved in the enforcement efforts, confirmed to Fox News there was a direct order from the mayor to her police chief Monday night, effectively tying the hands of officers as they were pelted with rocks and bottles.
Asked directly if the mayor was the one who gave that order, the source said: &#8220;You are God damn right it was.&#8221;</blockquote>
Many have blamed the fallout of the case for the increase in crime in the city, maintaining that the backlash against the police and the pressure from elected officials has resulted in a more &#8220;hands off&#8221; approach by officers.
Others, as AP explains, have blamed the spike in crime as the result of a confluence of factors, including access to illegal guns, the opioid epidemic, social inequalities, lack of jobs, and political incompetence.
H/T J<a href="https://hotair.com/archives/jazz-shaw/2019/12/29/baltimore-succeeds-breaking-murder-record-century/">azz Shaw</a>
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Ceasfire Baltimore rally to stop gun violence

Baltimore Surpasses Highest Murder Rate Ever

Baltimore

Murder

At least 20 cops in Baltimore, Maryland were arrested, sentenced, or suspended in 2019 for their behavior, a Baltimore Sun report <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-cr-20-baltimore-cops-sentenced-charged-2019-20191217-wtqklwhhqndk3hrgacufigczem-story.html">found</a>.
The outlet noted that this was an “ugly” year for the city’s cops, some of whom committed crimes themselves and terrorized residents. In addition to the 20 or so who were punished for their actions, Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby in October presented <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-cr-gttf-commission-meeting-20191203-uuumag74hnhxhgn2oeadzh53ki-story.html">a list of 305</a> Baltimore police officers with possible credibility issues.
“We have 305 officers with integrity issues and/or allegations of integrity issues that would in essence put them in jeopardy from testifying,” Mosby said when she presented her list.
As for those who were punished or arrested in 2019, the actions that led to their consequences include some real doozies.
Beating a Man “Without Justification”
Former officer Arthur Williams was found guilty of second-degree assault in June based on body cam footage of him beating a man multiple times. The victim received a broken jaw and ribs and spent three days in the hospital. Baltimore Circuit Judge Yolanda Tanner said the attack was “without justification.” Williams was sentenced to 9 months in prison.
Sergeant Charged after Chasing and Arresting Man For Exercising Free Speech Rights
A sergeant was charged with “assault, false imprisonment and misconduct,” the Sun reported, after he chased a bystander who was complaining about how officers were treating a suspect. The bystander committed no crimes, yet the police sergeant arrested him, according to body cam footage. When the bystander asked why he was being arrested, the police sergeant told him: “Just go to jail and take your charge like a man.&#8221;
Road Rage
Former officer Michael Gentil was sentenced to five years in prison after he nearly ran over a pedestrian and then pulled a gun on the man after he spilled tea on Gentil’s car. Gentil, according to prosecutors, didn’t yield when the pedestrian was crossing the street. The pedestrian was carrying tea and spilled some on Gentil’s car. Gentil then pulled a gun on him and ordered him to get down on the ground.
Drunk Driving
Former officer Aaron Heilman was found with a blood alcohol level of 0.22 and slumped over in his car in the early afternoon last year. He entered a plea agreement this year. Another officer, detective Kevin Brown, was suspended and charged with driving under the influence.
Perjury
Michael O’Sullivan was sentenced to 15 months in prison – but is still part of the police force, though he has been suspended – for lying in court regarding a criminal case. O’Sullivan claimed he saw a suspect throwing away a handgun while fleeing from cops. It was determined he could not have witnessed the event.
Planting a Toy Gun on Someone to Justify Police Chasing Him
A man was chased by police in 2014 and eventually “run down by an officer’s vehicle,” the Sun reported. To justify police actions, retired police Sgt. Keith Gladstone planted a toy gun on the man. He pleaded guilty and faces up to 10 years in federal prison, according to the Sun.
Gun Task Force Corruption
Eight city officers were “<a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bal-baltimore-gun-trace-task-force-coverage-storygallery.html">convicted of racketeering offenses</a> for robbing people using their badge,” the Sun reported.
Tasing and Beating a Teenager
Former officer Carlos Rivera-Martinez was dismissed and convicted of second-degree assault and misconduct after beating a 16-year-old in the head and using his taser on the boy after chasing him.

Baltimore police

Drunk Driving, Pulling A Gun On Someone For Spilling Tea: Baltimore Cops Have ‘Ugly’ Year

Crime

Police

Baltimore Mayor Bernard &#8220;Jack&#8221; Young suggested on Thursday that the city&#8217;s leadership should not be held responsible for Baltimore&#8217;s consistently high murder rate because none of the leadership members personally committed any murders.
&#8220;There is not a lack of any leadership on my part. I have been moving this city forward &#8230; you know, because I&#8217;m not committing the murders and that&#8217;s what people need to understand,&#8221; Young told reporters during a press conference. &#8220;I&#8217;m not committing the murders, the police commissioner is not committing it, the council is not committing it. So, how can you fault leadership?&#8221;
Young&#8217;s remarks were in response to an <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/op-ed/bs-ed-op-1112-jordan-taylor-20191111-yl3v2zq4pvdktaffv7urcd34oa-story.html">opinion piece</a> written by Y in Central Maryland President John Hoey, who blamed the city&#8217;s skyrocketing murder rate on the local government lack of initiative. Hoey penned the op-ed after a 31-year-old Y coach was killed during a home invasion while in his Baltimore residence.
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Mayor Jack Young on Baltimore homicides: &quot;I&#39;m not committing the murders. The police commissioner has not committed it. The council&#39;s not committing it. So how can you fault leadership?&quot; <a href="https://t.co/Yg9MMRnUTE">https://t.co/Yg9MMRnUTE</a> <a href="https://t.co/5XExpSMGA2">pic.twitter.com/5XExpSMGA2</a>
&mdash; FOX Baltimore (@FOXBaltimore) <a href="https://twitter.com/FOXBaltimore/status/1194729498194989057?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;The truth is that we are in the midst of an existential crisis in the City of Baltimore. Our homicide rate is among the highest in the country, and the pace of violence and victims this year is exceeding last year’s already high pace,&#8221; Hoey wrote. &#8220;The reasons for this level of violence are complex and interlocking.&#8221;
&#8220;There is no one thing to be done to fix it, but there are definitely a set of laws, practices and actions at both the local and state level (with federal assistance) that could be used to significantly reduce the rate of violent crime if we had the will and focus to do it,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Other cities have successfully reduced their violent crime rate significantly, but in Baltimore we have had not just a crisis of confidence but, in my view, a crisis of leadership.&#8221;
City Council President Brandon Scott, who is challenging Young for Baltimore mayor, slammed Young for his response in a statement, according to <a href="https://foxbaltimore.com/news/city-in-crisis/mayor-young-says-leadership-isnt-to-blame-for-baltimore-murders">Fox 45 News</a>.
&#8220;Mr. Mayor, respectfully, this can&#8217;t be our response to violence as elected leaders in Baltimore,&#8221; Scott said. &#8220;Our residents deserve to know their leaders have a vision to coordinate our precious resources in the fight against violent crime effectively and urgently, not passing the buck.&#8221;
The city of Baltimore is already bracing to surpass the 300 homicides mark for the fifth year in a row — as of mid-November, 296 individuals have been killed in the city.
Baltimore had the worst homicide rate among the 50 largest cities in the country, as well as the second-highest violent crime rate overall, according to<a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-fbi-data-20180924-story.html"> FBI data</a> released in 2018. At the time, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan called the news &#8220;shocking and disappointing,&#8221; but further noted that &#8220;it doesn&#8217;t come as a complete surprise.&#8221;
Young became the mayor of Baltimore in May 2019 after his Democratic colleague, former mayor Catherine Pugh, stepped down amid investigations into corrupt business dealings. He had previously served for nearly a decade as the president of the Baltimore City Council.
Young&#8217;s campaign manager later issued a statement trying to clarifying his initial comments.
&#8220;While no leaders in our city are personally responsible for these crimes, ALL of us have a role to play in stopping them. And, as mayor, I take and will continue to take responsibility for making our city safer and cleaner,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;But the City leadership can&#8217;t do it alone. We need community leaders, stakeholders, and everyday Baltimoreans to come together and work to reduce gun violence.&#8221;

WATCH: Baltimore Mayor Dodges Responsibility For Skyrocketing Murder Rate: ‘I’m Not Committing The Murders’

The U.S. Department of Justice has recently sued the Baltimore County government alleging that its written test for police officer recruits was unfairly biased against black applicants. It turns out that black applicants failed the written test at a rate much greater than white applicants. That results in fewer blacks being trained and hired as police officers. John A. Olszewski Jr., Baltimore County Executive said: &#8220;A law enforcement agency should look like the community it serves. As I have said repeatedly since taking office, I am committed to increasing diversity in the county&#8217;s Police Department.&#8221;
Baltimore City uses Municipal Police Selection Test. You can examine some sample questions at its website. I&#8217;d like to know which of the questions are either unrelated to police work or racist. Many jurisdictions use The National Police Officer Selection Test. You can examine some of the sample questions at its website. Again, I&#8217;d like to know which of the questions are unrelated to police work or are racially biased questions. In addition, it has been found that MPST and POST are successful predictors of law enforcement training success and job performance.
Black performance on police exams is simply the tip of the iceberg of a truly tragic cruelty. That cruelty stands front and center when one examines the education that most blacks in Baltimore receive. Several years ago, Project Baltimore began an investigation of Baltimore&#8217;s school system. What they found was an utter disgrace. In 19 of Baltimore&#8217;s high schools, out of 3,804 students, only 14 of them, or less than 1%, were proficient in math. In 13 of Baltimore&#8217;s 39 high schools, not a single student scored proficient in math. In five Baltimore City high schools, not a single student scored proficient in math or reading. Despite these academic deficiencies, about 70% of the students graduate and are conferred a high school diploma. A high school diploma attests that the holder can read, write and compute at a 12th-grade level. Obviously, the diplomas conferred on students who have not mastered reading, writing and computing are fraudulent.
When a person who cannot read, write and compute very well takes a written employment exam, including that to become a police officer, he is going to encounter difficulties. His difficulties are not caused by any racially discriminatory aspect of the test. His difficulties are a result of not having acquired what he should have acquired by the time he finished high school. But that is not how such a person sees it. He sees that he has a high school diploma just as a white applicant has a high school diploma. To him, any difference in treatment and outcomes must be the result of racial discrimination. Thus, the U.S. Department of Justice sued, claiming that the written test for police officer recruits was unfairly biased against black applicants.
The conclusion that Baltimore County&#8217;s written test for police officer recruits was unfairly biased against black applicants is tragic. It allows Baltimore public schools to continue to produce fraudulent education. You say: &#8220;Hold it, Williams! You can&#8217;t blame everything on schools.&#8221; You&#8217;re right. One cannot blame schools and teachers for students who are hostile to the education process. One cannot blame schools and teachers for a rotten home environment or derelict parents. But there is one thing entirely within the control of educators. That&#8217;s their power to issue diplomas. When they confer high school diplomas on youngsters who cannot read, write and compute at or near a 12th-grade level, they are engaging in fraudulent conduct.
Dr. Thomas Sowell&#8217;s research in &#8220;Education: Assumptions Versus History&#8221; documents academic excellence at Baltimore&#8217;s Frederick Douglass High School and others. This academic excellence occurred during an era when blacks were much poorer and faced gross racial discrimination. It&#8217;s worthwhile reading for black people to learn the capabilities of other blacks facing so many challenging circumstances. I&#8217;m wondering when the black community will demand an end to an educational environment that condemns so many youngsters to mediocrity.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

Police Tape

WILLIAMS: Racist Exam Questions?

Department of Justice

Race

Racism

A soon-to-be opened restaurant in Baltimore is being called racist because it posted a sign with one specific message: the restaurant has a dress code.
The Choptank, which alerted prospective customers that it will be &#8220;opening soon&#8221; on <a href="https://thechoptankbaltimore.com/">its website</a>, posted a dress code listing some items that would be unacceptable to wear on its premises, including:
<blockquote>Excessively baggy clothing
Offensive, Vulgar, or Inappropriate Attire
Athletic Attire
Jerseys
Brimless headgear
Backwards or Sideways Hats
Work and Construction Boots
Sunglasses After Dark</blockquote>
One Twitter user who described themselves as a photojournalist tweeted, &#8220;Dress CODED sign at the new Choptank restaurant in Fells,&#8221; followed by another tweet with a <a href="https://twitter.com/jmgpix/status/1174136342214828032">picture of the sign</a> and a link to a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/food/wp/2019/09/17/critics-say-a-new-baltimore-crab-house-is-targeting-minorities-with-its-strict-dress-code/">Washington Post article</a> about the restaurant.
The restaurant tweeted back, &#8220;Being new to the Fells Point neighborhood, we simply implemented the dress code standard that is used by several other properties in the area including Barcocina, Bond Street Social Moby&#8217;s and The Horse You Came In On. Have a great day.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Being new to the Fells Point neighborhood, we simply implemented the dress code standard that is used by several other properties in the area including Barcocina, Bond Street Social Moby’s and The Horse You Came In On. Have a great day.
— The Choptank (@The_Choptank) <a href="https://twitter.com/The_Choptank/status/1173594900895621123?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Another Twitter user <a href="https://twitter.com/Sedna_51/status/1173657165464125440">added</a>, &#8220;This is racist as hell and I will never enter your restaurant &amp; will actively warn others away from it, have a great day.&#8221; Another <a href="https://twitter.com/HollaBlackGirl/status/1173708363604975616">added</a>, &#8220;Y&#8217;all coulda saved yourselves some time @The_Choptank and just posed a &#8216;No Black People&#8217; sign.&#8221; A writer for ELLE magazine <a href="https://twitter.com/oureric/status/1173690140037922819">tweeted</a> that the restaurant had a &#8220;blatantly discriminatory dress code.&#8221;
The Washington Post quoted Jassera Contreras, a host at Barcocina, saying, &#8220;We don&#8217;t really have a dress code. We&#8217;re casual fine dining but basically as long as you don&#8217;t come in in your pajamas, you&#8217;re okay. We&#8217;ve never kicked anyone out or anything.&#8221; The Post added, &#8220;At Bond Street, there is no dress code on weekdays, a woman answering the phones said, but after 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, it bans hats of all kinds, boots, hoodies, baggy or ripped jeans, military attire, athletic footwear and tank tops on men.&#8221;
A spokesperson for Atlas Restaurant Group, which owns The Choptank, told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/baltimore-restaurant-dress-code-discrimination">Fox News</a>, &#8220;Our policy is no different than countless other bars in Fells Point, Federal Hill and many other bar/restaurants around Maryland including Seacrets and Tiki Lee&#8217;s both posted on their websites. There are also national properties such as Wynn Las Vegas (XS) that have similar dress codes in their entertainment venus. The most prominent African-American nightclub in Baltimore, Select Lounge has a stricter dress code as well. Baltimore City Public Schools has a similar dress code and language for their students.&#8221;
As <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/food-drink/bs-fo-choptank-dress-code-20190917-xjvijspltreyhm4l4n4jlmc5vu-story.html">The Baltimore Sun</a> reported, Baltimore mayor Bernard Young came to the defense of Atlas Restaurant Group founder Alex Smith, noting that Smith and Atlas often donate to charitable projects such as Toys for Tots. Young stated, &#8220;I don&#8217;t care what it is that I&#8217;m doing, I can call them and they jump right on it … I think people probably read into this wrong. I can tell you for a fact there&#8217;s not a racist bone in that guy&#8217;s body. This guy will give you the clothes off his back to help people. If you go to any of their restaurants, like Ouzo Bay, there are black folk there.&#8221; Young pointed out that Smith invited a black musician to play at his wedding, adding, &#8220;If he was racist, do you think he would have a black artist play at his wedding?&#8221;

Necktie

Baltimore Restaurant Accused Of Racism After Posting This Dress Code

Here&#8217;s what President Donald Trump tweeted about Baltimore&#8217;s congressman and his city: &#8220;Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men &amp; women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is far worse and more dangerous. His district is considered the worst in the USA.&#8221;
&#8220;As proven last week during a congressional tour, the border is clean, efficient and well run, just very crowded,&#8221; Trump added. Cummings&#8217; &#8220;district is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous &amp; filthy place.&#8221;
President Donald Trump&#8217;s claims suggesting that Rep. Elijah Cummings&#8217; Baltimore-area district is &#8220;considered the worst run and most dangerous&#8221; has been called racist. But whether Trump&#8217;s claims have any merit is an empirical matter settled by appealing to facts. Let&#8217;s look at a few.
In 2018, Baltimore was rated one of the &#8220;Rattiest Cities&#8221; in the nation by pest control company Orkin. According to Patch Media, although there has been progress in the last few years, Baltimore ranks ninth in rat infestation, down from its sixth position two years ago on Orkin&#8217;s list.
What about safety? In 2017, St. Louis had the nation&#8217;s highest murder rate, at 66.1 homicides per 100,000 residents. Baltimore came in second, with 55.8 murders per 100,000 people. The unpleasant fact is that predominantly black and Democratic-run cities have the worst records of public safety. The Trace, an independent nonprofit news organization, using 2017 data from the FBI&#8217;s Uniform Crime Reporting program, listed the 20 major U.S. cities with the highest homicide rates. After St. Louis and Baltimore, Detroit was third, with 39.8 murders per 100,000 people. Other cities with high murder rates included New Orleans; Kansas City, Missouri; Cleveland; Memphis, Tennessee; and Newark, New Jersey. With 24.1 murders per 100,000 residents, Chicago ranked ninth in the nation, followed by Cincinnati and Philadelphia. Washington, D.C., was 17th.
What about education in Baltimore? In 2016, in 13 of Baltimore&#8217;s 39 high schools, not a single student scored proficient on the state&#8217;s mathematics exam. In six other high schools, only 1% tested proficient in math. In raw numbers, 3,804 Baltimore students took the state&#8217;s math test and 14 tested proficient. Citywide, only 15% of Baltimore students passed the state&#8217;s English test. Money is not the problem. Of the nation&#8217;s 100 largest school systems, Baltimore schools rank third in spending per pupil.
Baltimore&#8217;s black students receive diplomas that attest that they can function at a 12th-grade level when in fact they may not be able to do so at a sixth-, seventh- or eighth-grade level. These students and their families have little reason to suspect that their diplomas are fraudulent. Thus, if they cannot pass a civil service exam, they will accuse the exam of being racist. When they get poor grades in college and flunk out, they will attribute their plight to racism. The information that these black students have is that they, just as white students, have a high school diploma and the only explanation they see for unequal outcomes is racism. The same story of poor education outcomes can be told about most cities with large black populations.
The problems that black people confront are immune to who is the president of the U.S. Those problems were not ameliorated when Barack Obama was president. Those problems are not going to be ameliorated by Trump&#8217;s presidency, though the black unemployment rate is considerably lower. The lesson for black people is that politicians and government handouts are not solutions. If they were, at a public expenditure that tops $22 trillion over the past half-century, black people would not be confronted with today&#8217;s problems.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

School Classroom

WILLIAMS: Was Trump Right About Baltimore?

Donald Trump

Elijah Cummings

This week, after The Baltimore Sun slammed a conservative activist who organized 170 volunteers to pick up 12 tons of trash in the city, questioning his motives, a philanthropist threw down the gauntlet to the newspaper, offering to pledge $100,000 to clean up the city if the Sun would retract its editorial.
The <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-0808-conservatives-clean-west-baltimore-20190806-hmc2gndnhfhodch4yxromipgnq-story.html">editorial was titled</a>, “We assume it was pure motives that led a Trump supporter to launch a cleanup in Cummings’ district, right?” In the op-ed, the Sun blasted activist Scott Presler, whose volunteers completed the massive job in only 12 hours, cynically writing, “Look, we appreciate anyone who is willing to roll up their sleeves to help Baltimore. More than 170 people came from all over the country and cleaned up nearly 12 tons of trash, according to Mr. Presler’s Twitter feed. He doesn’t post any photos of the totality of the trash, so we’ll have to take his word for it. But if this was all about &#8216;Americans helping Americans,&#8217; why all the videos of Baltimore residents thanking Mr. Trump for bringing attention to the issue? We happen to know that not everybody in West Baltimore feels that way. And in the same posts as the videos, why the frequent reminders that this is in act Mr. Cummings’ district?&#8221;
The op-ed added, “Whatever he says his motives were, Mr. Presler’s presence in Baltimore reinforces the tired image of our failing urban cores. That the poor people in this dilapidated city can’t take care of their own neighborhoods and all the public officials around them have failed as well. The bureaucratic, all-talk Democrats strike again. If a crowd of volunteers could clean up 12 tons of trash in 12 hours, how incompetent and helpless must Baltimoreans be if they can’t manage it in decades, right?”
But then the Sun contradicted its previous statement, writing, “We also hope Mr. Presler keeps his promise to return to Baltimore once a month. It would definitely give his motives more credibility.”
Philanthropist Bill Pulte fired back at the Sun on Twitter, writing, “My teammates and I will pledge $100,000 to Baltimore neighborhood clean up (I know a thing or two about that!) in Baltimore if the Baltimore Sun retracts this article that discourages people who want to help the City, when the amazing residents want them (to) help!”
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">My teammates and I will pledge $100,000 to Baltimore neighborhood clean up (I know a thing or two about that!) in Baltimore if the Baltimore Sun retracts this article that discourages people who want to help the City, when the amazing residents want them help! <a href="https://t.co/0vh444NAaM">https://t.co/0vh444NAaM</a>
— Bill Pulte (@pulte) <a href="https://twitter.com/pulte/status/1159104682004025345?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
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In late July, President Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50329/trump-supporters-clean-west-baltimore-and-liberal-amanda-prestigiacomo">targeted</a> West Baltimore, specifically, the district of Rep. Elijah Cummings, tweeting:
<blockquote>Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men &amp; women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous. His district is considered the Worst in the USA. As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient &amp; well run, just very crowded. Cumming[s&#8217;] District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous &amp; filthy place.</blockquote>
H/T <a href="https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2019/08/08/philanthropist-pledges-100000-to-clean-up-baltimore-if-newspaper-retracts-its-hit-piece-on-volunteers/">Twitchy</a>

Baltimore Trash

Baltimore Sun Rips Trump Supporter For Cleaning Up Baltimore. Philanthropist Fires Back With One Hell Of An Offer.

In his latest man-on-the-street video, filmmaker Ami Horowitz played another round of &#8220;America&#8217;s favorite game: Who Said What?&#8221; — this time focused on &#8220;racist&#8221; comments about Baltimore, the city President Trump singled out repeatedly last week in his battle with Democratic Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings.
In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1SsANgO1m8">the video</a>, Horowitz asks people who aren&#8217;t fans of Trump to identify the person they believe was behind various quotes slamming Baltimore, offering them three options: President Trump, former Democratic Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh (who resigned this year amid mounting pressure over a book deal scandal), and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
To get things warmed up, Horowitz starts with the most famous (and recent) of the quotes: Baltimore is a &#8220;disgusting, rat and rodent-infested mess.&#8221;
The first &#8220;contestant&#8221; answers correctly that that &#8220;racist&#8221; quote was stated by none other than the original Baltimore-hater himself, Donald Trump.
But the second quote throws the next participant for a loop. &#8220;You can smell the rats from here,&#8221; Horowitz reads. The woman guesses Trump, only to learn that it was in fact the African American former mayor of Baltimore who offered that rather damning <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/07/29/baltimore-mayor-catherine-pugh-smell-the-rats/">comment</a> — and long before Trump took aim at the Democrat-controlled city.
Next quote: &#8220;What the hell? We should take all this sh** down.&#8221;
&#8220;That&#8217;s gotta be Trump,&#8221; says a dude whose made great progress growing a Gandalf beard. Unfortunately, again, it turns out that it was actually Mayor Pugh&#8217;s suggestion to tear down part of the city back in 2018 because it was so dilapidated.
Next quote: &#8220;You would think we&#8217;re in a third world country.&#8221; That quote sparks a debate between a hat and glass-wearing guy and girl, the guy insisting Bernie doesn&#8217;t use the term &#8220;third world&#8221; anymore, as it&#8217;s now politically incorrect. But, it turns out that, yes, it was Bernie, who offered the brutal critique <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bernie-sanders-blasted-baltimore-as-third-world-country-and-disgrace-in-past-comments">back in 2015</a>.
The contestants don&#8217;t always get things wrong, but they generally err on the side of blaming Trump.
WATCH:
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The controvery over Baltimore began when Trump issued a series of tweets blasting Rep. Cummings, whose district includes the city, for neglecting what he described as a crime-plagued, &#8220;rat and rodent infested mess&#8221; and said &#8220;no human being would want to live there&#8221; — comments the Democrats and their allies in the media quickly declared &#8220;racist.&#8221;
&#8220;Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men &amp; women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous,&#8221; Trump tweeted last week &#8220;His district is considered the Worst in the USA. As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient &amp; well run, just very crowded. Cumming[s&#8217;] District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous &amp; filthy place.&#8221;
&#8220;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?&#8221; Trump added. &#8220;Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50364/reporter-confronts-residents-about-trumps-amanda-prestigiacomo">Reporter Confronts Residents About Trump&#8217;s Baltimore Comments. They Demolish The Left&#8217;s Narrative, Heckle Al Sharpton.</a>

WATCH: Trump Critics Presented With ‘Racist’ Comments About Baltimore, Then Learn Who Actually Said Them

Ami Horowitz

Bernie Sanders

Catherine Pugh

On Monday, street reporter Austen Fletcher, a.k.a “Fleccas,” released about ten minutes of footage of West Baltimore residents talking about the conditions of the area and how they felt about President Donald Trump&#8217;s recent comments concerning West Baltimore — which the mainstream media and many top Democrats framed as racist.
The residents told a grim story about the decline of the area they love, plagued by crime and murder, and said Trump was right in his assessment even if, as one female put it, she&#8217;s still “Team Obama.”
Fleccas also highlighted another inconsistency within the mainstream narrative. When controversial activist Rev. Al Sharpton popped up in West Baltimore following Trump’s comments, residents heckled the political figure, calling him a “phony” and a “hustler” and asking why he only comes around during politically opportune times.
“It’s just sad man, everyday I’m crying inside because I wake up and I’m still here. It used to be okay, but it&#8217;s not now,” one man told Fleccas’ crew.
Another woman with a legally obtained firearm on her hip, said, “You can’t go home without feeling a threat of being shot, you’re scared to walk anywhere. &#8230; The violence is that bad.”
“Baltimore city is definitely ‘Murderland,’” she later added. “There are contracts out here for nothing, to kill someone for less than $100. The statement is definitely true. I got my gun permit eight years ago. You really have to feel some type of way that you have to be armed to live in Baltimore city — granted, mine is legal.”
“I saw a man rob a man, right here,” a man working from behind a shield at a convenience store said. “A customer went out of the door, and this guy, he just opened the door for him and put a gun to his head and he robbed him right in his car.”
“I feel like nobody cares about this area here, they’re not concerned about us,” a middle-aged female said.
Two men then complained that Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) has been representing the area for 25 years and has nothing to show for it.
“He allocated $4.6 billion for illegal immigrants but he hasn’t donated any money right for North Avenue &#8230; West Baltimore. Where has he been at? It’s drug-infested, it’s homeless people right there in West Baltimore — two blocks from his district. He don’t come there everyday. I haven’t seen Elijah Cummings in ten years ride up and down North Avenue,” one of the men said, noting that the last time he was around was following the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/12/us/freddie-gray-baltimore-police-federal-charges.html">death of Freddie Gray</a>, which was quickly politicized.
When asked about President Trump’s comments, one of the men answered, “Me personally, I want him to say things like that because it’s true. &#8230; I don’t have no problems with the man. I really respect him as a man because he’s upfront, he’s truthful. They keep wanting to say, ‘he a racist, he a racist, he a racist’; that’s not the problem, especially with black people, because I don’t see white men killing my own kind, you know what I mean.”
The woman with a firearm on her hip told the interviewer, “It’s sad but it’s true.” She later added, “I’m still ‘Team Obama,’ but with that being said, he’s (Trump) a powerful man and I believe he can make a lot of changes happen.”
“I don’t want to make a comment on the president, but he has a point,” the man working at the convenience store said. “Crime is very high and something has to be done.”
Two other locals had a back-and-forth over Trump suggesting “no human” would want to live in the area. “That’s true! I moved. I moved out of there. I can take you, right now, where there’s no running water in a whole block — ten minutes from Elijah Cummings’ block,” one of them said.
In another part of the video, men living in West Baltimore heckled Mr. Sharpton while he was giving a speech about Trump’s comments, painting the president as racist.
“You go back to New York! You bring that s*** to New York! You ain’t do nothing for Baltimore! You a phony!” an elderly man yells at the political figure.
“Our schools are failing us! Where are you when our schools are failing us? You’re just a hustler,” another man yells at Sharpton.
Late last month, Trump highlighted the issues in West Baltimore while going after Mr. Cummings. Trump ridiculed the top Democrat for neglecting the American people he represents to focus on the southern border.
&#8220;Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men &amp; women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous. His district is considered the Worst in the USA,&#8221; Trump said in a series of tweets. &#8220;As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient &amp; well run, just very crowded. Cumming[s&#8217;] District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous &amp; filthy place.”
Though the media were quick to paint Trump as a racist for calling out the conditions, during a congressional hearing in 1999, Cummings called Baltimore “a drug-infested area&#8221; where people were &#8220;walking around like zombies,” as previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50103/watch-video-emerges-elijah-cummings-calling-ryan-saavedra">reported</a> by The Daily Wire.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50329/trump-supporters-clean-west-baltimore-and-liberal-amanda-prestigiacomo">Trump Supporters Clean Up West Baltimore And The Liberal Media Are Irritated</a>
WATCH:
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Reporter Confronts Residents About Trump’s Baltimore Comments. They Demolish The Left’s Narrative, Heckle Al Sharpton.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) extended an offer to President Donald Trump on Wednesday to tour Baltimore alongside him, after the president criticized the conditions of the congressman’s district.
“I want President Trump to come to my district,” Cummings said during a fireside chat at the National Press Club. “Oh God, I want him to come so bad.”
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Trump ignited a firestorm after he had previously tweeted a series of attacks against the Maryland lawmaker, criticizing him for bullying Border Patrol agents over the conditions of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facilities along the southern border while the district Cummings was elected to represent remained, according to Trump, a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”
Cummings subsequently defended his service to the people of Maryland’s 7th Congressional District, as well as his handling of the House Oversight and Reform Committee during his tenure as chairman.
The president, however, continued his barrage of criticism and went on to tweet a slew of video clips showing Baltimore’s piling garbage and deteriorating conditions.
“I want him to come. I want him to come. I want him to come and look at my entire city. I’ll ride with him for hours if he asked to,” Cummings said. “Then I want him to go into Baltimore County where the richest of the rich are, then I want him to go into Howard County where the richest of the rich are, and then I want him to see all the wonderful things that are happening.”
Cummings, however, declined to tour a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) facility in Baltimore with HUD Sec. Ben Carson after the Trump administration extended the invitation in July. At the time, Cummings’ office <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50120/cummings-turns-down-trump-administrations-molly-prince">told The Daily Wire</a> he was unable to join “due to scheduling conflicts.”
Cummings revealed on Wednesday that he has not asked the president about accompanying him to Baltimore because he “can’t get to him,” but welcomed the media to write editorials about his offer.
After his initial attack, Trump was immediately met with widespread backlash over what many on the Left claimed were racially motivated accusations. In response, the president doubled down on the remarks and accused Democrats of always playing “the race card.”
“Just take a look, the facts speak louder than words! The Democrats always play the Race Card, when in fact, they have done so little for our Nation’s great African American people,” Trump tweeted. “Now, lowest unemployment in U.S. history and only getting better. Elijah Cummings has failed badly!”
Interestingly, the city of Baltimore has been a top contender for the most rat-infested cities in the nation. <a href="https://patch.com/maryland/baltimore/baltimore-most-rat-infested-cities-list-again-orkin">The list</a>, which is compiled annually by the pest control company Orkin, placed Baltimore as one of the top 10 “Rattiest Cities” for the second year in a row in 2018.
Baltimore also had the worst homicide rate among the 50 largest cities in the country, as well as the second highest violent crime rate overall, according to <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-fbi-data-20180924-story.html">FBI data</a> released in 2018. At the time, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan called the news “shocking and disappointing,” but further noted that “it doesn’t come as a complete surprise.”

elijahcummings.jpg

WATCH: Elijah Cummings Wants Trump To Visit Baltimore

On Monday, a group of Trump supporters led by conservative activist Scott Presler went to West Baltimore for a massive clean-up operation following tweets sent by President Donald Trump highlighting the dire conditions in the area.
While the residents were thankful for the overhaul — well over 100 volunteers came together to remove 12 tons of trash, according to Presler — the liberal media were, uh, irritated. The media attacked the activist as an &#8220;extremist,&#8221; questioned his motives, and scolded him for &#8220;reinforc[ing] the tired image that the poor people in this city can’t take care of their own neighborhoods.&#8221;
Here are some of the photos and videos from the clean-up effort:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">We&#8217;re here in West Baltimore to pick up trash.
This isn&#8217;t a Trump rally, nor an anti-Representative Cummings event.
This is simply <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AmericansHelpingAmericans?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AmericansHelpingAmericans</a>. <a href="https://t.co/Kxl6nVClxy">pic.twitter.com/Kxl6nVClxy</a>
— #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottPresler/status/1158338978011078656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">This is one of the proudest moments of my life. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AmericansHelpingAmericans?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AmericansHelpingAmericans</a> <a href="https://t.co/TxLY2Ippra">pic.twitter.com/TxLY2Ippra</a>
— #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottPresler/status/1158427368781950976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Everyone is coming together to help Baltimore.
This is what makes America great. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AmericansHelpingAmericans?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AmericansHelpingAmericans</a> <a href="https://t.co/LFEkRw8JW8">pic.twitter.com/LFEkRw8JW8</a>
— #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottPresler/status/1158452902731689984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Imagine if we picked up trash in every city across America. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AmericansHelpingAmericans?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AmericansHelpingAmericans</a> <a href="https://t.co/9Ucyvgew6Y">pic.twitter.com/9Ucyvgew6Y</a>
— #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottPresler/status/1158532600346095618?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">West Baltimore local says, &#8220;I&#8217;m really happy. I want to cry.
I truly appreciate it.&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AmericansHelpingAmericans?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AmericansHelpingAmericans</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Baltimore?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Baltimore</a> <a href="https://t.co/KCXZUXH36x">pic.twitter.com/KCXZUXH36x</a>
— #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottPresler/status/1158502786612572160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Baltimore locals from Representative Cummings&#8217; District 7 thank President <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> for bringing attention to Baltimore. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AmericansHelpingAmericans?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AmericansHelpingAmericans</a> <a href="https://t.co/RxQtliHPc2">pic.twitter.com/RxQtliHPc2</a>
— #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottPresler/status/1158440422328479746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Before &amp; After: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AmericansHelpingAmericans?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AmericansHelpingAmericans</a> <a href="https://t.co/EcOvNC5fDa">pic.twitter.com/EcOvNC5fDa</a>
— #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottPresler/status/1158458652057120768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Thank you to the over 170+ volunteers who helped pick up trash in Baltimore.
We were out from 8 a.m. &#8211; 8 p.m. &amp; picked up over 12 tons of trash. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AmericansHelpingAmericans?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AmericansHelpingAmericans</a> <a href="https://t.co/t0JqOouKxF">pic.twitter.com/t0JqOouKxF</a>
— #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottPresler/status/1158526924160978945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;We assume it was pure motives that led a Trump supporter to launch a cleanup in Cummings&#8217; district, right?,&#8221; a headline from The Baltimore Sun&#8217;s editorial board <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-0808-conservatives-clean-west-baltimore-20190806-hmc2gndnhfhodch4yxromipgnq-story.html">snarked</a>.
&#8220;It made for good photos, compelling videos and catchy Twitter hashtags,&#8221; the editorial opened. &#8220;A group of conservatives rolled their pickup trucks into one of West Baltimore’s most impoverished neighborhoods Monday for a cleanup day. Loaded down with trash bags and shovels, they cleared alleyways of old tires, food containers, paper and other debris. They pulled up weeds and cut away overgrown grass. The group posted before and after pictures on social media showing their progress.&#8221;
Presler said the &#8220;visit wasn’t about showing support or animosity for either man,&#8221; the paper continued. &#8220;Call us skeptical.&#8221;
&#8220;Whatever he says his motives were, Scott Presler’s presence in Baltimore reinforces the tired image that the poor people in this city can’t take care of their own neighborhoods,&#8221; the Sun complained.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">.<a href="https://twitter.com/baltsunopinion?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@baltsunopinion</a>: Whatever he says his motives were, Scott Presler’s presence in Baltimore reinforces the tired image that the poor people in this city can’t take care of their own neighborhoods. <a href="https://t.co/EleeVh4ZPm">https://t.co/EleeVh4ZPm</a>
— The Baltimore Sun (@baltimoresun) <a href="https://twitter.com/baltimoresun/status/1158882948235448321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Real News Network <a href="https://therealnews.com/stories/right-wing-extremist-scott-presler-organizes-trash-clean-up-in-west-baltimore">labeled</a> Mr. Presler as a &#8220;right-wing extremist.&#8221;
&#8220;[R]ight-wing extremist Scott Presler organizes a &#8216;Clean Up&#8217; event in West Baltimore, but is this altruism or a political ploy for Trump?&#8221; the outlet asked.
Presler, however, remains undeterred in helping other Americans in need. &#8220;I&#8217;m getting messages from people all over the country wanting to start cleanups in their local cities,&#8221; he said in a tweet posted Tuesday. &#8220;We did something very special in Baltimore yesterday — it&#8217;s having a nationwide effect.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">I&#8217;m getting messages from people all over the country wanting to start cleanups in their local cities.
We did something very special in Baltimore yesterday &#8212; it&#8217;s having a nationwide effect.
— #ThePersistence (@ScottPresler) <a href="https://twitter.com/ScottPresler/status/1158723311335071745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
In late July, President Trump highlighted the issues in West Baltimore — specifically, the district of Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD). Trump ridiculed Cummings for neglecting the American people he represents to focus on the southern border — &#8220;bully[ing], shouting, and screaming&#8221; at Border Patrol, according to the president.
&#8220;Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men &amp; women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous. His district is considered the Worst in the USA,&#8221; Trump said in a series of tweets. &#8220;As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient &amp; well run, just very crowded. Cumming[s&#8217;] District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous &amp; filthy place.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">&#8230;.As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient &amp; well run, just very crowded. Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous &amp; filthy place
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1155073965880172544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Though the media were quick to paint Trump as a racist for calling out the conditions, Mr. Cummings has similarly used such language to describe the area.
&#8220;This morning I left my community of Baltimore, a drug infested area&#8221; where people were &#8220;walking around like zombies,” Cummings said during a 1999 congressional hearing, as previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50103/watch-video-emerges-elijah-cummings-calling-ryan-saavedra">reported</a> by The Daily Wire.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50033/baltimore-sun-trump-rat-amanda-prestigiacomo">‘Baltimore Sun’ Editorial Board Unloads On Trump, Calls Him A Rat. Here’s The Problem.</a>

Cleanup

Trump Supporters Clean Up West Baltimore And The Liberal Media Are Irritated

Trump Supporters

After another raucous rally in Ohio Thursday night, in which he worked in some more shots at the far-left &#8220;Squad&#8221; of Democratic congresswomen and slammed the conditions of Democrat-run cities, President Donald Trump started off Friday with an early morning tweet trolling one of the Democrats with whom he&#8217;s been in a much-publicized feud, Maryland&#8217;s Rep. Elijah Cummings.
&#8220;Really bad news! The Baltimore house of Elijah Cummings was robbed. Too bad!&#8221; Trump tweeted.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Really bad news! The Baltimore house of Elijah Cummings was robbed. Too bad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1157259424794324992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 2, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
The trolling social media post comes in response to reports Thursday night that Cummings&#8217; house had been robbed hours before Trump first hit him with a pair of blistering tweets condemning his handling of the crime-ridden, &#8220;rat and rodent infested&#8221; Baltimore — a description Democrats have decried as &#8220;racist.&#8221;
As reported by <a href="https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/video/4136701-break-in-reported-at-elijah-cummings-house/">CBS Baltimore</a> and confirmed by police Thursday, an individual broke into the Baltimore residence of Rep. Cummings at around 3:40 a.m. Saturday, a few hours before Trump&#8217;s Cummings-targeting tweets. Police said they were unsure if any of the congressman&#8217;s property was stolen as a result of the break-in. Initial reports of the burglary inspired several posts on social media attempting to blame Trump for the robbery despite the timeline confirmed by police.
The blowup between Trump and Cummings began Saturday morning when Trump unleashed on the congressman over the &#8220;dangerous&#8221; state of the city he&#8217;s tasked with representing. Trump&#8217;s bruising critique was prompted by Cummings&#8217; recent criticism of the Border Patrol, as well as the House Oversight and Reform Committee (led by Cummings) authorizing subpoenas for all work-related texts and emails of Trump&#8217;s daughter and son-in-law, according to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50045/nyt-white-house-officials-told-us-real-reason-hes-james-barrett">The New York Times</a>.
&#8220;Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men &amp; women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous,&#8221; Trump tweeted Saturday. &#8220;His district is considered the Worst in the USA. As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient &amp; well run, just very crowded. Cumming[s&#8217;] District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous &amp; filthy place.&#8221;
&#8220;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?&#8221; Trump added. &#8220;Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!&#8221;
Amid mounting blowback, Trump continued to hammer Cummings: &#8220;Elijah Cummings spends all of his time trying to hurt innocent people through &#8216;Oversight.&#8217; He does NOTHING for his very poor, very dangerous and very badly run district! So sad that Elijah Cummings has been able to do so little for the people of Baltimore. Statistically, Baltimore ranks last in almost every major category. Cummings has done nothing but milk Baltimore dry, but the public is getting wise to the bad job that he is doing!&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50153/after-dems-praise-al-sharpton-wapo-publishes-james-barrett">After Dems Praise Al Sharpton, WaPo Publishes Devastating Piece Detailing His Ugly Past</a>

Trump Tweets ‘Really Bad News’ About Break-In At Elijah Cummings’ Baltimore House

The Baltimore residence of Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) was reportedly broken into on Saturday, only hours before President Donald Trump criticized the dilapidated condition of his &#8220;very dangerous&#8221; congressional district.
Baltimore city police confirmed on Thursday that an individual broke into Cummings&#8217; home at around 3:40 a.m., according to <a href="https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/video/4136701-break-in-reported-at-elijah-cummings-house/">CBS Baltimore</a>. Police, however, declined to comment on whether any property was taken during the incident.
The crime reportedly occurred shortly before Trump tweeted a series of attacks on the Maryland congressman, criticizing him for bullying Border Patrol agents over the conditions of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities along the southern border, all while the district he was elected to represent is, according to Trump, a &#8220;disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.&#8221;
The president was immediately met with widespread backlash over what many on the left side of the aisle deemed to be racially-motivated attacks. In response, Trump doubled down on the remarks and accused Democrats of always playing the &#8220;race card.&#8221;
&#8220;Elijah Cummings spends all of his time trying to hurt innocent people through &#8216;Oversight.&#8217; He does NOTHING for his very poor, very dangerous and very badly run district! Take a look … &#8221; he tweeted, along with a video showing piles of garbage covering a Baltimore neighborhood. &#8220;#BlacksForTrump2020&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Elijah 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&#8230;. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlacksForTrump2020?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BlacksForTrump2020</a> <a href="https://t.co/seNVESZUht">https://t.co/seNVESZUht</a>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1155230324374343688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Cummings subsequently <a href="https://twitter.com/RepCummings/status/1155132215208161281?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1155132215208161281&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailywire.com%2Fnews%2F50120%2Fcummings-turns-down-trump-administrations-molly-prince">defended his service</a> to the people in Maryland&#8217;s 7th Congressional District, as well as his handling of the House Oversight and Reform committee during his tenure as chairman.
&#8220;Mr. President, I go home to my district daily. Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors,&#8221; Cummings said. &#8220;It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents.&#8221;
The president, however, continued his barrage of criticism and went on to tweet a slew of video clips showing the deteriorating conditions of Baltimore.
&#8220;So sad that Elijah Cummings has been able to do so little for the people of Baltimore. Statistically, Baltimore ranks last in almost every major category,&#8221; Trump said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1155320921068056576?s=20">separate tweet</a>. &#8220;Cummings has done nothing but milk Baltimore dry, but the public is getting wise to the bad job that he is doing!&#8221;
Accordingly, the city of Baltimore was the runner up for the highest volume of violent crime among the nation&#8217;s 50 largest cities, according to <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-fbi-data-20180924-story.html">FBI data</a> published in 2018. It also topped the list for having the worst homicide rate overall. At the time, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan called the news &#8220;shocking and disappointing,&#8221; but further noted that &#8220;it doesn&#8217;t come as a complete surprise.&#8221;
&#8220;Baltimore&#8217;s numbers are the worst in the United States on Crime and the Economy. Billions of dollars have been pumped in over the years, but to no avail,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;The money was stolen or wasted. Ask Elijah Cummings where it went. He should investigate himself with his Oversight Committee!&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Baltimore’s numbers are the worst in the United States on Crime and the Economy. Billions of dollars have been pumped in over the years, but to no avail. The money was stolen or wasted. Ask Elijah Cummings where it went. He should investigate himself with his Oversight Committee!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1156017961766756353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
The Baltimore Police Department would not confirm to The Daily Wire that a break-in occurred at Cummings&#8217; residence but did confirm that a break-in occurred on the block where the Maryland lawmaker resides.

REPORT: Elijah Cummings’ Baltimore Home Was Burglarized

The Trump campaign dug up an old video of Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) on Wednesday that shows him calling his district &#8220;drug infested,&#8221; which comes after the media and Democratic Party repeatedly attacked President Donald Trump for calling Baltimore drug- and rat-infested over the weekend.
During a congressional hearing in 1999, Cummings said: &#8220;This morning I left my community of Baltimore, a drug infested area&#8221; where people were &#8220;walking around like zombies.&#8221;
WATCH:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings in 1999: &#8220;This morning I left my community of Baltimore, a DRUG INFESTED area&#8221; where people are &#8220;walking around like zombies.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/MGUDfXL7UC">pic.twitter.com/MGUDfXL7UC</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1156611903231352833?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 31, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
The newly uncovered clip comes after Trump repeatedly slammed Cummings over the weekend for the poor conditions in his district.
&#8220;Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men &amp; women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous,&#8221; Trump tweeted. His district is considered the Worst in the USA as proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient &amp; well run, just very crowded. Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous &amp; filthy place.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">&#8230;.As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient &amp; well run, just very crowded. Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous &amp; filthy place
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1155073965880172544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;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,&#8221; Trump continued. &#8220;No human being would want to live there. Where is all this money going? How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1155076476930338816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Trump made the remarks after he watched a &#8220;FOX &amp; Friends&#8221; segement on Fox News on Saturday in which journalist Kimberly Klacik toured the Baltimore area and filmed broken down homes and residents complaining about the conditions in the district.
Here are some of the videos Klacik tweeted out:
&#8220;Not only are @RepCummings constituents NOT afraid of Trump, they are on board with his immigration policies. Residents are upset that illegal immigrants are taking the only jobs in the area. City contractors paying the illegals cash, leaving residents with no hope.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Not only are <a href="https://twitter.com/RepCummings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepCummings</a> constituents NOT afraid of Trump, they are on board with his immigration policies. Residents are upset that illegal immigrants are taking the only jobs in the area. City contractors paying the illegals cash, leaving residents with no hope. More to come.. <a href="https://t.co/OZRZH9Fvhg">pic.twitter.com/OZRZH9Fvhg</a>
— Kimberly Klacik (@kimKBaltimore) <a href="https://twitter.com/kimKBaltimore/status/1154107910579990534?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 24, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;He claims to care about children &amp; their future, however in West Baltimore you will find abandoned homes on every block. Many filled with trash, rodents &amp; homeless looking for shelter. Children live on these streets seen here. This district belongs to @RepCummings.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">He claims to care about children &amp; their future, however in West Baltimore you will find abandoned homes on every block. Many filled with trash, rodents &amp; homeless looking for shelter. Children live on these streets seen here. This district belongs to <a href="https://twitter.com/RepCummings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepCummings</a>. More to come.. <a href="https://t.co/8z7tfIHU0q">pic.twitter.com/8z7tfIHU0q</a>
— Kimberly Klacik (@kimKBaltimore) <a href="https://twitter.com/kimKBaltimore/status/1154392199691460615?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 25, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;Let&#8217;s walk through a typical abandoned row house in West Baltimore. You will find at least one of these on every street. According to residents, there is an uptick in homeless thanks to the increase in drug inventory post 2015 riots. This is 
@RepCummings district, more to come&#8230;&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Let&#8217;s walk through a typical abandoned row house in West Baltimore. You will find at least one of these on every street. According to residents, there is an uptick in homeless thanks to the increase in drug inventory post 2015 riots. This is <a href="https://twitter.com/RepCummings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepCummings</a> district, more to come&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/KOu87Mqlys">pic.twitter.com/KOu87Mqlys</a>
— Kimberly Klacik (@kimKBaltimore) <a href="https://twitter.com/kimKBaltimore/status/1154490922110980096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 25, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;8 blocks of row houses in West Baltimore are currently using water through a system hooked to the fire hydrants. Please listen to Michelle, a life long resident, discuss the water &amp; her message to city officials. This is @RepCummings 
district.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">8 blocks of row houses in West Baltimore are currently using water through a system hooked to the fire hydrants. Please listen to Michelle, a life long resident, discuss the water &amp; her message to city officials. This is <a href="https://twitter.com/RepCummings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepCummings</a> district. More to come&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/jBHBzYxtaA">pic.twitter.com/jBHBzYxtaA</a>
— Kimberly Klacik (@kimKBaltimore) <a href="https://twitter.com/kimKBaltimore/status/1154744775037374465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 26, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
&#8220;Residents constantly call the city to remove trash, no one shows up for months. Rats &amp; roaches are a problem in almost every home. Illegal immigrants at the border live in better conditions than Americans in West Baltimore. This is @RepCummings district.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Residents constantly call the city to remove trash, no one shows up for months. Rats &amp; roaches are a problem in almost every home. Illegal immigrants at the border live in better conditions than Americans in West Baltimore. This is <a href="https://twitter.com/RepCummings?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepCummings</a> district.
More to come&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/rso3yxWh5f">pic.twitter.com/rso3yxWh5f</a>
— Kimberly Klacik (@kimKBaltimore) <a href="https://twitter.com/kimKBaltimore/status/1154796324262424580?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 26, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

WATCH: Video Emerges Of Elijah Cummings Calling Baltimore ‘Drug Infested’

2020 Election

Drugs

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson is playing peacemaker between President Trump and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) in the wake of the president&#8217;s blistering attack over the weekend on the city of Baltimore, in which he referred to Cummings&#8217; district as &#8220;rat-infested&#8221; — a charge seemingly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49999/trump-called-racist-saying-baltimore-rat-infested-amanda-prestigiacomo">supported by the evidence</a>.
Speaking on <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/ben-carson-trump-cummings-baltimore">Tucker Carlson&#8217;s Fox News&#8217; program</a> Monday night, Ben Carson said President Trump cares deeply about the people of Baltimore and that he would even be willing to work with Cummings to help the &#8220;suffering&#8221; city. Carson cited Trump&#8217;s policies, including his support of economic opportunity zones, as evidence of his work to help impoverished communities.
&#8220;Well, first of all, you know, as a pediatric neurosurgeon, I spent many hours, sometimes operating all night long trying to give children of Baltimore and other places around the world a second chance at life,&#8221; Carson said. &#8220;And usually, we were successful. But a few days later, I was in a horrible dilemma, because some of those kids had to go back into homes in East Baltimore that were infested with rats and roaches and ticks and mold and lead and violence.&#8221;
Carson admitted that he regretted sending those children back to East Baltimore and would have gladly had them stay in the hospital an extra day or two just to keep them safe. He thanked God for the fact he can actually do something to help those children as President Trump&#8217;s HUD secretary.
&#8220;Fortunately, God’s given me an opportunity to do something about it. And that’s one of the reasons I’m delighted to be in this administration,&#8221; Carson continued. &#8220;You know, while I was there, I worked on a lot of issues with many politicians, including Elijah Cummings, particularly in terms of childhood education and improving &#8230; life for the people.&#8221;
Carson defended both President Trump&#8217;s and Elijah Cummings&#8217; character, praising them both for trying to help people and adding that the two could potentially work together in the service of Baltimore.
&#8220;I don’t think Elijah Cummings is a bad person,&#8221; Carson said. &#8220;I think he actually is working hard to try to help people. And I certainly don’t think President Trump is a bad person. He’s working very hard — in fact, I asked him today, would you be willing to work with Elijah Cummings to bring some relief to the people of Baltimore? He said he would be happy to.&#8221;
For now, however, Carson said that President Trump will be focusing on programs like economic opportunity zones — which give businesses a tax incentive to invest in underserved communities.
&#8220;There are 149 of them in Maryland. And, you know, Governor Hogan is doing a good job of helping to capitalize upon that,&#8221; said Carson. &#8220;But, also, you know, unemployment is at a very low level. Manufacturing is coming back. Wages are going up, you know, prison reform. All of these things are happening. These are not things that a person who is a racist would do. And we allow ourselves to be distracted by these things.&#8221;
“And I think what President Trump was trying to say is that rather than spending your time talking about, you know, our brave border agents and investigating endlessly things that you can’t find anything on, why not spend some time working more for these people, you know, who are suffering?&#8221; Carson concluded. &#8220;And that he is willing to work with them. I think that’s what we should be asking for.&#8221;

Ben Carson: Trump ‘Willing To Work’ With Elijah Cummings To Help ‘Suffering’ Baltimore

Ben Carson

On Sunday, <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-0728-trump-baltimore-20190727-k6ac4yvnpvcczlaexdfglifada-story.html">The Baltimore Sun</a> editorial board ripped President Donald Trump for highlighting disastrous conditions within the district in West Baltimore represented by Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD), though the paper has repeatedly reported on such dire conditions themselves. 
&#8220;[W]hile we would not sink to name-calling in the Trumpian manner — or ruefully point out that he failed to spell the congressman&#8217;s name correctly (it&#8217;s Cummings, not Cumming) — we would tell the most dishonest man to ever occupy the Oval Office, the mocker of war heroes, the gleeful grabber of women&#8217;s private parts, the serial bankrupter of businesses, the useful idiot of Vladimir Putin and the guy who insisted there are &#8216;good people&#8217; among murderous neo-Nazis that he&#8217;s still not fooling most Americans into believing he&#8217;s even slightly competent in his current post,&#8221; the piece said. &#8220;Or that he possesses a scintilla of integrity. Better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one.&#8221;
The op-ed, subtly titled, &#8220;Better to have a few rats than to be one,&#8221; suggested Trump went after Cummings because of his skin color, calling it &#8220;good politics&#8221; for the president to rip &#8220;African American members of Congress.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s not hard to see what’s going on here,&#8221; the op-ed reads. &#8220;The congressman has been a thorn in this president’s side, and 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. President Trump bad-mouthed Baltimore in order to make a point that the border camps are &#8216;clean, efficient &amp; well run,&#8217; 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 &#8216;a ticking time bomb.'&#8221;
However, the Sun has time and again called out the troubles plaguing West Baltimore. And the paper did so without having accusations of racism hurled at them.
Last year, for example, the Sun <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49999/trump-called-racist-saying-baltimore-rat-infested-amanda-prestigiacomo">reported</a> on a documentary about the city&#8217;s rat infestation, thusly: &#8220;&#8216;Rat Film,&#8217; a documentary that takes the decades-long fight waged against Baltimore&#8217;s rat population and uses it as a lens through which to look at how the city has addressed myriad social issues over the decades, airs tonight on PBS.&#8221;
Moreover, in September of last year, the paper <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-fbi-data-20180924-story.html">reported</a> on the area&#8217;s crime problem: &#8220;Baltimore had the worst homicide rate among the nation&#8217;s 50 largest cities last year and the second-highest violent crime rate overall, according to new data from the FBI.&#8221;
And in 2016, they <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/op-ed/bs-ed-baltimore-disaster-20161109-story.html">ran</a> an op-ed titled, &#8220;Trump’s right: Declare Baltimore a &#8216;disaster&#8217; and rebuild it.&#8221;
Trump set off the media with a series of tweets he posted on Saturday morning taking aim at Rep. Cummings&#8217; alleged neglect of his district while using the issue at the southern border to attack the president and fellow Republicans.
&#8220;Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men &amp; women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous. His district is considered the Worst in the USA,&#8221; said Trump. &#8220;As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient &amp; well run, just very crowded. Cumming[s&#8217;] District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous &amp; filthy place.&#8221;

‘Baltimore Sun’ Editorial Board Unloads On Trump, Calls Him A Rat. Here’s The Problem.

President Trump set off another round of performative handwringing this weekend when he described the city of Baltimore as &#8220;disgusting,&#8221; &#8220;rat infested,&#8221; &#8220;dangerous,&#8221; and &#8220;very poor.&#8221; I am personally not a big fan of Trump&#8217;s Twitter commentaries, which are almost always posted in anger and almost always prompted by a &#8220;Fox &amp; Friends&#8221; segment. I would rather the president do something other than live-tweet the Fox News morning show. That said, he&#8217;s not wrong about Baltimore, and I say that as someone who lived in the area for over 20 years.
Indeed, everything he said about the town has already been said — and much worse — by the people who reside in or around it. Up until this weekend, you would have been hard-pressed to find any Baltimorean who would contest the claim that Baltimore is dangerous, poor, and, yes, in parts disgusting. You would have been even harder-pressed to find non-Baltimore residents who would disagree with the assessment. To the outside world, Charm City has for years been known first for murder and drugs, second for &#8220;The Wire&#8221; (a show about murder and drugs), and third for crab cakes. Natives of the city know it for all of those same things, along with Natty Boh and great football defenses.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tFtZmwGddso" width="480" height="270" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>
What a shock to the system it has been, then, to see the media and leftists on Twitter <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/wearebaltimore-hashtag-twitter-trump_n_5d3d94f3e4b0ef792e0db785?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004">suddenly pretending</a> to have some great affection for Baltimore. Trump possesses a sort of reverse magnetism that causes his opponents to rush to the opposite side of whatever position he has taken — even if the position is that a city with one of the highest murder rates in the country is dangerous. After spending decades scoffing at Baltimore, or entirely ignoring it, now leftists have come heroically to its defense. The hilariously misspelled #WeAreBalitmore hashtag campaign features a bunch of people — many of whom are not from the city — explaining why it is actually a lovely place. Many of these tweets are accompanied with <a href="https://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1155299479865712640?s=20">pictures of the Inner Harbor</a>, the most touristy spot in town and about as representative of Baltimore&#8217;s culture as Times Square is of New York City&#8217;s culture.
Ironically, though, even the relatively &#8220;safe&#8221; and &#8220;family friendly&#8221; Inner Harbor has recently seen outbursts of chaos and violence. A huge swarm of teenagers <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfHJC7SSz3s">descended</a> on the harbor a few months ago and randomly assaulted tourists just for fun. Random assaults at the harbor are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEMrKoHwitM">nothing new</a>, and the problem isn&#8217;t going away. Just last week, a city employee was <a href="https://patch.com/maryland/baltimore/baltimore-police-employee-assaulted-reward-offered-info">brutally beaten</a> in daylight just blocks away — the <a href="https://www.wmar2news.com/news/crime-checker/baltimore-city-crime/second-baltimore-police-employee-robbed-in-less-than-a-week">second incident</a> of this type in the last few weeks.
If this is what the comparatively safe parts are like, it&#8217;s no surprise that the unsafe parts <a href="https://twitter.com/kimKBaltimore/status/1155217289060503560">look like</a> third-world slums. With a <a href="https://247wallst.com/economy/2015/04/28/baltimore-demographics-the-city-by-the-numbers/">poverty rate</a> of 23% and a <a href="https://www.areavibes.com/baltimore-md/crime/">violent crime rate</a> over 400% higher than the national average, Baltimore clearly fits the bill for poor and dangerous (and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voiqyfaqulQ">rat infested</a>, by the way). There are well over 10,000 murders, rapes, robberies, and assaults <a href="https://www.areavibes.com/baltimore-md/crime/">reported</a> in Baltimore in a given year, to go along with the 30,000 or so cases of property crime. In fact, <a href="https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/violent-weekend-13-shot-6-killed-in-baltimore-since-friday">10 people were shot and several killed</a> just since Trump&#8217;s tweet on Saturday. Including Friday in the total, Baltimore had 13 shootings and 6 murders in a single weekend. Meanwhile, the fire department was busy putting out <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/5-homes-set-on-fire-baltimore-maryland">11 fires</a>.
Where is the bright spot in all of this? Well, if you&#8217;re searching for one, don&#8217;t look towards the education system, where <a href="https://foxbaltimore.com/news/project-baltimore/13-baltimore-city-high-schools-zero-students-proficient-in-math">a third of all high schools</a> in the city struggle to get even one student up to the level of merely proficient in basic subjects like math. At Booker T. Washington Middle School, the <a href="https://www.cheatsheet.com/money-career/the-20-worst-public-schools-in-america.html/">proficiency</a> rate for math and English is (literally) zero.
We haven&#8217;t even gotten into the statistics on drug abuse and homelessness, but there&#8217;s no need. Everyone gets the picture, and they didn&#8217;t need this article to tell them. We all know that Baltimore — like so many Democrat-run cities — is, in so many ways, a disgrace. And ignoring the problem won&#8217;t make it go away. We know that because city leaders have already tried that strategy for decades, and look where it&#8217;s gotten us.

WALSH: Trump Is Right About Baltimore, And Everyone Knows It

Democratic Party

President Donald Trump has been called a “racist” for several days now over his comments regarding the cleanliness and safety of Baltimore, Maryland.
Trump this weekend tweeted that the city — which is in Rep. Elijah Cummings’ (D-MD) district — is “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess,” and a “very dangerous and filthy place.&#8221;
Media outlets rushed to defend the city and label Trump a “racist” for allegedly using “dog whistles” — since Baltimore is a majority African-American city.
In reality, Trump verbally attacks cities and states where he has a real or imagined issue. As Republican political strategist Andrew Surabian <a href="https://twitter.com/Surabees/status/1155822726373892096">pointed out</a> on Twitter, Trump also called the entire state of New Hampshire “a drug-infested den” while discussing the state’s opioid problem with Mexican President Pena Nieto.
TIME Magazine <a href="https://time.com/4885759/donald-trump-new-hampshire-drug-transcript/">reported</a> at the time that Trump’s comments were revealed in a transcript of a phone call with the president of Mexico on January 27.
“They are sending drugs to Chicago, Los Angeles, and to New York. Up in New Hampshire — I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den — is coming from the southern border,” Trump told Nieto on the call.
The claim that Trump reserves words like “infested” for black cities is negated by his use of the term for New Hampshire. The Granite State’s population is 93.9% white, according to the last census, and just 1.1% black. Baltimore is 62.9% black and whites make up 30.26% of the population.
Trump’s original tweets regarding Cummings’ district were tied to the congressman’s criticism of Border Patrol and conditions along the southern U.S. border with Mexico.
“Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men &amp; women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous,&#8221; Trump tweeted. &#8220;His district is considered the Worst in the USA. As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient &amp; well run, just very crowded. Cumming[s&#8217;] District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous &amp; filthy place.&#8221;
The Daily Wire’s James Barrett <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50008/trump-why-isnt-bernie-racist-making-brutal-comment-james-barrett">reported</a> Monday that Trump is now asking why Democrat presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wasn’t called a racist when he likened Baltimore’s poverty to the “Third World.”
The Wire’s Ryan Saavedra <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49996/democrat-baltimore-mayor-caught-camera-complaining-ryan-saavedra">reported</a> Sunday that Baltimore’s former mayor Catherine Pugh used colorful language to describe a section of the city during a tour.
&#8220;What the hell? We should just take all this sh*t down. &#8230; Whoa, you can smell the rats. &#8230; Whew, Jesus. &#8230; Oh, my God, you can smell the dead animals,” the former mayor said.
Meanwhile, media personalities like CNN’s Victor Blackwell claimed the reference to an “infestation” was not relating to rats but actually minorities.
Yet PBS aired a documentary last year called “Rat Film,” which the Wire’s Amanda Prestigiacomo <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49999/trump-called-racist-saying-baltimore-rat-infested-amanda-prestigiacomo">reported</a> was about the city’s rat infestation problem.
The pest-control company Orkin also listed Baltimore as one of America’s “<a href="http://patch.com/maryland/baltimore/baltimore-most-rat-infested-cities-list-again-orkin">Rattiest Cities</a>.”

Selective Outrage From Media: Trump Also Called New Hampshire A ‘Drug-Infested Den’

He&#8217;s a worm-can opener.
Two weekends ago, President Trump blasted four Democratic lawmakers of Congress for their &#8220;progressive&#8221; policies, suggesting they &#8220;go back&#8221; to where they came from (turned out three are native-born Americans and the fourth is an American citizen).
This past weekend, between rounds of golf at his swanky club outside the nation&#8217;s capital, Trump opened another can of worms, this time blasting a Maryland Democrat for the dismal state of the city of Baltimore.
&#8220;So sad that Elijah Cummings has been able to do so little for the people of Baltimore. Statistically, Baltimore ranks last in almost every major category. Cummings has done nothing but milk Baltimore dry, but the public is getting wise to the bad job that he is doing!&#8221; Trump wrote on Twitter Saturday.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">So sad that Elijah Cummings has been able to do so little for the people of Baltimore. Statistically, Baltimore ranks last in almost every major category. Cummings has done nothing but milk Baltimore dry, but the public is getting wise to the bad job that he is doing!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1155320921068056576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Just as with the other worm can, Trump&#8217;s comments prompted cries of racism.
But radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh said Trump was spot on in his comments, noting, however, that such charges against cities run by Democrats are never supposed to be uttered.
&#8220;What he&#8217;s saying here is the absolute truth, but it&#8217;s not supposed to be said about any place where the Democrats are in charge,&#8221; Limbaugh said Monday on &#8220;Fox &amp; Friends.&#8221;
&#8220;Wherever you find this decadent decay, you&#8217;re going to find Democrats having run the operation for decades,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The Democrats get to claim they are compassionate and that they care, but they never do anything that actually improves the quality of the lives of their constituents. Their constituents are as unhappy today as they were 50 years ago,&#8221; Limbaugh said.
Trump took aim at longtime Maryland lawmaker Rep. Elijah Cummings after he was a &#8220;brutal bully&#8221; during House hearings on the U.S.-Mexico border, in which he repeatedly berated Border Patrol officials.
&#8220;[T]here is nothing wrong with bringing out the very obvious fact that Congressman Elijah Cummings has done a very poor job for his district and the City of Baltimore,&#8221; Trump wrote on Twitter on Sunday. &#8220;Just take &#8230; a look, the facts speak far louder than words! The Democrats always play the Race Card, when in fact they have done so little for our Nation’s great African American people. Now, lowest unemployment in U.S. history, and only getting better. Elijah Cummings has failed badly!&#8221;
Trump also blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, another city mired in problems, from rampant drug use on city streets to an explosion of homeless defecating everywhere.
&#8220;Speaking of failing badly, has anyone seen what is happening to Nancy Pelosi’s district in San Francisco. It is not even recognizeable lately. Something must be done before it is too late. The Dems should stop wasting time on the Witch Hunt Hoax and start focusing on our Country!&#8221; Trump wrote.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Speaking of failing badly, has anyone seen what is happening to Nancy Pelosi’s district in San Francisco. It is not even recognizeable lately. Something must be done before it is too late. The Dems should stop wasting time on the Witch Hunt Hoax and start focusing on our Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1155442764940812290?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
On Monday, Trump mixed all the worms together, bringing the four female lawmakers in &#8220;The Squad&#8221; — Reps. Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts — into the mix with Cummings.
&#8220;If the Democrats are going to defend the Radical Left &#8216;Squad&#8217; and King Elijah’s Baltimore Fail, it will be a long road to 2020. The good news for the Dems is that they have the Fake News Media in their pocket!&#8221; Trump wrote on Twitter.
In a final blast, Trump noted that Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont socialist running for president, said much the same thing in 2015. &#8220;Anyone who took the walk that we took around this neighborhood would not think you’re in a wealthy nation,&#8221; Sanders said, The <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-sanders-baltimore-20151207-story.html">Baltimore Sun</a> reported. &#8220;You would think that you were in a Third World country.&#8221;
Said Trump: &#8220;Crazy Bernie Sanders recently equated the City of Baltimore to a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY! Based on that statement, I assume that Bernie must now be labeled a Racist, just as a Republican would if he used that term and standard! The fact is, Baltimore can be brought back, maybe [&#8230;] even to new heights of success and glory, but not with King Elijah and that crew. When the leaders of Baltimore want to see the City rise again, I am in a very beautiful oval shaped office waiting for your call!&#8221;

Limbaugh: Trump Speaking ‘Absolute Truth’ That’s ‘Not Supposed To Be Said’ About Democrat-Run Cities

Nancy Pelosi

Rush Limbaugh

San Francisco

President Trump has come under intense fire from Democrats and sympathetic media members over his blistering critique of what he portrayed as Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings&#8217; neglect of Baltimore, which the president described as a crime-ridden, &#8220;disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.&#8221; The comments, his critics say, are yet another example of his &#8220;racist&#8221; &#8220;dog-whistle&#8221; rhetoric. As usual, Trump has responded to the outrage by doubling down — and using the attacks as a way to generate some friendly fire among his political opponents.
&#8220;Crazy Bernie Sanders recently equated the City of Baltimore to a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY!&#8221; Trump tweeted Monday morning. &#8220;Based on that statement, I assume that Bernie must now be labeled a Racist, just as a Republican would if he used that term and standard!&#8221;
&#8220;The fact is, Baltimore can be brought back, maybe even to new heights of success and glory, but not with King Elijah and that crew,&#8221; Trump added. &#8220;When the leaders of Baltimore want to see the City rise again, I am in a very beautiful oval shaped office waiting for your call!&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">&#8230;.even to new heights of success and glory, but not with King Elijah and that crew. When the leaders of Baltimore want to see the City rise again, I am in a very beautiful oval shaped office waiting for your call!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1155822023245012992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 29, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Trump&#8217;s &#8220;third world&#8221; comment is a reference to a statement Sanders made to reporters after walking through Baltimore in December 2015.
&#8220;Hoping to reach African-American voters nationally in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday toured the West Baltimore neighborhood where Freddie Gray was arrested — and likened the poverty he observed to that of the Third World,&#8221; <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-sanders-baltimore-20151207-story.html">The Baltimore Sun</a> reported.
After about 20 minutes walking through the streets of Sandtown-Winchester &#8220;joined by community leaders and a swarm of cameras,&#8221; Sanders painted a grim picture of the city, which was recently rated among the nation&#8217;s &#8220;<a href="http://patch.com/maryland/baltimore/baltimore-most-rat-infested-cities-list-again-orkin">Rattiest Cities</a>&#8221; according to pest control company Orkin.
&#8220;Anyone who took the walk that we took around this neighborhood would not think you&#8217;re in a wealthy nation,&#8221; Sanders told reporters. &#8220;You would think that you were in a Third World country.&#8221;
&#8220;[T]oday what we&#8217;re talking about is a community in which half of the people don&#8217;t have jobs,&#8221; said Sanders. &#8220;We&#8217;re talking about a community in which there are hundreds of buildings that are uninhabitable.&#8221;
The Baltimore controversy started this weekend when Trump tweeted out a series of posts blasting Rep. Cummings and the state of the city he&#8217;s charged with representing.
&#8220;Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men &amp; women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous,&#8221; Trump tweeted Saturday. &#8220;His district is considered the Worst in the USA. As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient &amp; well run, just very crowded. Cumming[s&#8217;] District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous &amp; filthy place.&#8221;
&#8220;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?&#8221; he added. &#8220;Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!&#8221;
As the blowback intensified, Trump continued to hammer Cummings. &#8220;Elijah Cummings spends all of his time trying to hurt innocent people through &#8216;Oversight.&#8217; He does NOTHING for his very poor, very dangerous and very badly run district!&#8221; he tweeted later, including video showing the dilapidated state of the city.
&#8220;So sad that Elijah Cummings has been able to do so little for the people of Baltimore,&#8221; he added in another tweet. &#8220;Statistically, Baltimore ranks last in almost every major category. Cummings has done nothing but milk Baltimore dry, but the public is getting wise to the bad job that he is doing!&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50004/trump-goes-after-con-man-al-sharpton-amid-molly-prince">Trump Goes After ‘Con Man’ Al Sharpton Amid Baltimore Controversy: He ‘Hates Whites’</a>

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