Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) fired back at President Trump on Saturday after the president bashed him as a “brutal bully” and cast his Baltimore district as “dangerous” and “disgusting.”
“Mr. President, I go home to my district daily. Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors,” Cummings, the chairman of the powerful House Oversight and Reform Committee, tweeted. “It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents.”
Cummings went on to call on the White House to work with him on legislation to tackle the rising costs of prescription drugs, which he said Trump had told him he supported.
{mosads}Trump took to Twitter early Saturday morning to hammer Cummings over his criticism of the administration’s immigration policies, which the Maryland Democrat has likened to “government-sponsored child abuse.”
“Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous,” Trump asserted in a tweet.
“His district is considered the Worst in the USA as proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded,” Trump continued. “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 & filthy place.”
A wave of Democrats denounced the remarks, praising Cummings’s chairmanship of the Oversight and Reform Committee and panning Trump’s remarks as racist.
“.@RepCummings is a champion in the Congress and the country for civil rights and economic justice, a beloved leader in Baltimore, and deeply valued colleague. We all reject racist attacks against him and support his steadfast leadership. #ElijahCummingsIsAPatriot,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tweeted.
Beyond Cummings’s criticism of the administration’s hard-line immigration platforms, Trump’s remarks also come days after the Oversight and Reform Committee authorized subpoenas for records from the White House regarding aides’ use of personal email and text applications for official business.