nbc news headquarters here in new york. day 921 of the trump administration. the president has now attacked the city of baltimore and he begins another week embroiled in a new controversy involving race. after his relentless attacks over this weekend on maryland democratic congressman elijah cummings, a 23-year veteran of the house, son of former sharecroppers, cummings represents a majority black district that includes baltimore and a large scrounge area. he s chairman of the powerful oversight committee that is conducting several investigations into the administration. he has subpoenaed, among others, ivanka trump and jared kushner. he has backed chairman of other committees, look, looking into possible impeachment. early saturday, trump lashed out at cummings criticism of conditions for migrant children at the intern border saying, quote, his baltimore district is far worse and more dangerous, misspelling his name. he went on to say his district
to him. when the president comes out with a policy, we can say, all right. this is what president trump says about migration. this is what president trump says about immigration. this is what the president says about iran. that is news and the democrats can attack it from a policy perspective. we don t have to jump every single time a cranky old man wakes up and says something racist because he is going to do that every day all the way until 2021 whether in office or out. that s what i think the real challenge is. it is not to ignore him but make sure we only focus on the things he says that matter. donald trump being a racist doesn t matter anymore because we already know that s who he is. we should talk about his policies. then where is the rest of the republican party specifically those running for congress? chris, i want to share a bit of what we heard this weekend from one of the president s closest advisers, mick mulvany speaking on a sunday show. you don t know that this is
locals here are quick to point out this is home to the social security administration, johns hopkins hospital, a place where the median income is above the national average. also a majority black district. also a place that president trump this weekend called a rat and rodent infested mess. the baltimore sun blasted the president with this blistering editorial writing, we would tell the most dishonest man to ever occupy the oval office that he s still not fooling most americans into believing he s even slightly competent in his current post or that he possesses a scintilla of integrity. better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one. local officials spoke out quickly saying that they would not ignore the president s words. that the problems that this district does face would only be solved with the help of the federal government. as for representative cummings whose oversight committee has launched several investigations into the trump administration, well, he re
criticism against prominent black lawmaker elijah cummings and his majority black district. a day after heated rhetoric from the president referred to baltimore as, quoting here, rat infested mess. no human being would want to live there. in a new attack, trump tweeted that it s sad cummings has done so little for the people of baltimore. even went on to accuse democrats of playing the race card. today lawmakers denounced the president s racially charged tweets. our president has a hate agenda. he doesn t have a policy agenda. i absolutely think it s important to call it out for what it is, which is racism. the president is as he usually is or often is, disgusting and racist. it didn t stop there. maryland lawmakers and residents responded with anger and the the baltimore sun saying it s bettervermen in your
pockets for you. the white working class is picking his pockets for a racist white president. the irony is they ain t getting no benefit from what he s doing. they have what they call the psychological wave of whiteness, but other than that, at least you re not a black person, there s no physical payoff or variable socioeconomic benefit. so the bully pit of donald trump devastated this country again. let s look how a series of republicans responded to these tweets. here s mick mulvaney, the president s acting chief of staff. you know this is a majority black district and when the president says rat-infested, he says no human being would live there. do you understand that is offensive to the americans who do live there? i understand everything donald trump says is offensive to some people. no human being would want to live there. when donald trump attacks