On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” anchor Chris Wallace questioned White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on President Donald Trump’s attacks on Rep Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and the city of Baltimore.
Wallace said, “This goes back to what happens with the four members of ‘The Squad.’ Nobody objects to the president defending his border policy, but this seems to be the worst kind of racial stereotyping.”
He continued, “Black congressman, majority-black district, I mean, no human being would want to live there? Is He saying people who live in Baltimore are new, not human beings?”
Mulvaney said, “When the president attacks AOC-plus-three when he attacks “The Squad” last week, he gets accused of being a racist. When Nancy Pelosi does it a few days later the left and many members of the media, not you, in particular, I want to make that clear, come to Nancy’s defense. It couldn’t possibly be racist. She was simply attacking their ideas. The president is doing the same. The president is attacking Mr. Cummings for saying things that are not true about the border. I think it’s right for the president to raise the issue. Look, I was in Congress for six years. If I had poverty in my district like they have in Baltimore, if I had crime in my district like they have in Chicago, if I had homelessness like they have in San Francisco and I spent all of my time in Washington, D.C., chasing down this Mueller investigation, this in bazaar impeachment crusade, I get fired. And I think the president’s right to raise that it has absolutely zero to do with race.”
Wallace shot back, “You say it has little to do with race, there is a clear pattern here. The fact is before his inauguration. The president tweeted about John Lewis, a black congressman. This is before his inauguration. ‘He should spend time in his crime-infested district.’ Then, two weeks ago he goes after these four members of “The Squad,” all women of color, and says they should go back to the crime-infested countries from which they come. Then he talks about Elijah Cummings, and he says his district is rat and rodent-infested. Infested, it sounds like vermin. It sounds subhuman, and these are all six members of Congress for people of color.”
Mulvaney said, “I think you’re spending way too much time reading between the lines.”
Wallace said, “I’m not reading between the lines, I’m reading the lines.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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