July 27, 2019

In Rant Against Cummings, Trump Slams African-American Majority District as “Rodent-Infested Mess”

He also accused the House Oversight Committee chairman, without evidence, of corruption.

Jeff Malet/ZUMA

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President Donald Trump started his Saturday tweeting an attack on Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) after the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight Committee recently condemned the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants detained at the border.

Trump’s disparagement of Cummings’ district as a “disgusting, rat and rodent-infested mess,” as well as a “very dangerous and filthy place,” employed the same inflammatory language he’s often used when describing communities of color and African nations. The clearest and, perhaps, most damning example came earlier this month with Trump’s racist demand that four Democratic congresswomen of color “go back’ to the “crime-infested” countries they came from.

Cummings is a senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus. His district, Maryland’s 7th, which he has represented for 13 terms, is predominantly African American.

Trump finished his attack by appearing to accuse Cummings of corruption. “Where is all this money going?” he tweeted. “How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!”

The president did not offer any evidence to support the incendiary accusation. He was likely responding to a Fox News segment targeting Cummings for his recent remarks on the border.

After Robert Mueller’s testimony before Congress this week, Cummings also slammed Trump for the conduct outlined in the former special counsel’s testimony. “I’m begging the American people to pay attention to what is going on,” Cummings said, adding. “Because if you want to have a democracy intact for your children, and your children’s children and generations yet unborn, we have got to guard this moment.”

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In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

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