周六下午，美国国会最高民主党人站出来反对唐纳德·特朗普总统，她认为这是当天早些时候对众议员以利亚·卡明斯的种族主义攻击。

在一条推文中，众议院议长南希·佩洛西为卡明斯辩护，卡明斯是特朗普周六早上多次尖酸刻薄推文的目标。

“佩洛西在推特上引用总统早先的一句话写道:“我是国会和国家民权和经济正义的捍卫者，巴尔的摩一位受人爱戴的领导人，也是深受尊敬的同事。”我们都反对针对他的种族主义攻击，支持他坚定的领导。"

总统以对卡明斯的愤怒开始了他的周末早晨，卡明斯的国会选区包括巴尔的摩市的大部分，但也包括马里兰州的一些周边郊区和农村社区。

特朗普称同样是强大的众议院监督委员会主席的卡明斯是一个“野蛮的恶霸，他对边境巡逻队的伟大男女大喊大叫，谈论南部边境的情况，而实际上他所在的巴尔的摩地区更糟糕、更危险。他所在的地区被认为是美国最差的。”

随后，总统在推特上继续大肆辱骂卡明斯和他的选民。

“卡明斯·[区是一个令人厌恶的、老鼠和啮齿动物出没的乱七八糟的地方。特朗普补充道:“如果他能在巴尔的摩呆更多的时间，也许他能帮助清理这个非常危险和肮脏的地方。”他还呼吁对给予该地区的联邦资金进行调查，尽管许多国会选区获得的联邦拨款比卡明斯多几十亿美元。

马里兰州国会议员当天早些时候在推特上发表了自己的声明。

“总统先生，我每天都回家到我的小区。卡明斯写道:“每天早上，我醒来，都会为我的邻居而战。”。“对行政部门进行监督是我的宪法义务。但是，为我的选民而战是我的道义责任。”

这位国会议员随后利用他所关注的方向来聚焦他一直在做的工作，并呼吁特朗普与国会民主党人就处方药价格飙升的问题进行合作。

他写道:“就在昨天，我举行了一次听证会，讨论处方药价格飙升以及全国和巴尔的摩家庭面临的经济困难。”。“总统先生，我们可以一起解决这个问题。两年前，我去白宫要求你批准我的议案，让政府直接谈判降低药品价格。你当时告诉我你支持这项立法，你会和我一起努力实现它。我相信你的话。”

与佩洛西不同，卡明斯没有直接提及特朗普早期推特背后明显的种族因素。然而，周六，其他评论员认为总统的推特——几乎紧接着狐狸和朋友播出巴尔的摩的负面报道——显然与卡明斯和他的许多选民——肤色有关。

同样来自巴尔的摩的美国有线电视新闻网主播维克多·布莱克韦尔周六称，总统在使用“侵扰”一词时几乎没有使用编码的种族语言

“你在这里看到一种模式了吗...唐纳德·特朗普已经发了超过43000条推特，他侮辱了成千上万的人，许多不同类型的人，”布莱克威尔说。“但当他在推特上发布关于虫害的信息时，是关于黑人和棕色人种的。”

A新闻周刊浏览特朗普的推特档案，发现总统至少使用过8次某种形式的词，每次引用都是指或暗示与少数种族或居民主要是非白人的社区有联系。

周六特朗普发布推特消息还不到两周，总统就利用他最喜欢的媒体平台攻击了四名民主党女议员——亚历山大·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯、拉希达·特拉伊卜、阿扬纳·普雷斯利和伊尔汉·奥马尔，她们都是有色人种。

在7月14日的推特上，总统声称这些第一任期的进步立法委员“最初来自政府是一场彻底的灾难，是世界上最糟糕、最腐败和最无能的国家(如果他们真的有一个正常运转的政府的话)，”尽管只有一个人，奥马尔，出生在美国境外，而且都是美国公民。

“他们为什么不回去帮助修复他们来的完全破碎和犯罪猖獗的地方，”总统写道。

几天后，众议院投票，主要是按照政党路线，警告特朗普，并宣布他的言论是“种族主义的”然而，只有在7月17日北卡罗来纳州的一次竞选集会上，特朗普的支持者开始高喊“送她回去”，紧张局势才会加剧总统在讲话中开始批评奥马尔后。白宫随后声称特朗普试图通过继续讲话来阻止圣歌，但事件的镜头显示，总统沉默了近15秒，直到圣歌停止后才继续。

众议院议长南希·佩洛西在2019年7月11日华盛顿特区国会大厦的新闻发布会上回答了问题。佩洛西回答了一系列问题，包括对亚历山大·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯众议员和众议院民主党核心小组更进步成员最近的一次争吵的评论。

NANCY PELOSI FIRES BACK AT TRUMP OVER 'RACIST ATTACKS' ON REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS

Congress's top Democrat came out Saturday afternoon against President Donald Trump for what she viewed as a racist attack earlier in the day on Congressman Elijah Cummings.

In a tweet, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi spoked out in defense of Cummings who had been the target of multiple vitriolic tweets from Trump early Saturday morning.

"is a champion in the Congress and the country for civil rights and economic justice, a beloved leader in Baltimore, and deeply valued colleague," wrote Pelosi, quote-tweeting one of the president's earlier remarks. "We all reject racist attacks against him and support his steadfast leadership."

The president started off his weekend morning by raging against Cummings, whose congressional district includes much of the city of Baltimore, but also a number of surrounding suburban and rural communities in Maryland.

Trump called Cummings, who is also chair of the powerful House Oversight Committee, 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. His district is considered the Worst in the USA."

A subsequent tweet from the president continued to slather on insults directed at Cummings and his constituents.

"Cumming [sic] 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," added Trump, who also called for an investigation into federal funds that had been given to the district, even though there are a number of congressional districts that have received billions more in federal grants than Cummings'.

The Maryland congressman issued his own statement earlier in the day on twitter.

"Mr. President, I go home to my district daily. Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors," wrote Cummings. "It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents."

The congressman then used the attention focused in his direction to spotlight the work he had been doing, and called upon Trump to work with Democrats in Congress on the issue of soaring prescription drug prices.

"Just yesterday, I held a hearing on the skyrocketing prices of prescription drugs and the financial hardships that families across the nation, and in Baltimore, are facing," he wrote. "Mr. President, we can address this together. Two years ago, I went to the White House to ask you to endorse my bill to let the government negotiate directly for lower drug prices. You told me then that you supported the legislation and that you would work with me to make it happen. I took you at your word."

Unlike Pelosi, Cummings did not directly address the apparent racial aspects underlying Trump's earlier tweet. However, other commentators made the case Saturday that the president's tweets — which came almost immediately on the heels of Fox & Friends airing a negative story on Baltimore — were clearly related to Cummings' — and many of his constituents' — skin color.

CNN anchor Victor Blackwell, who is also from Baltimore, argued Saturday that the president was using barely coded racial language when using the term "infestation."

"Do you see a pattern here... Donald Trump has tweeted more than 43,000 times, he's insulted thousands of people, many different types of people," said Blackwell. "But when he tweets about infestation, it's about black and brown people."

A Newsweek look through the Trump archive of tweets found that the president had used some form of the word at least eight times, with each reference referencing or implying a connection to racial minorities or neighborhoods whose residents are predominantly non-white.

Saturday's Trump tweet comes not even two full weeks after the president used his favorite media platform to attack four Democratic congresswomen — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar, all people of color.

In a July 14 tweet, the president claimed that these first-term progressive legislators "originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all)," even though only one, Omar, was born outside the U.S. and all are American citizens.

"Why don't they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came," wrote the president.

Within days, the House of Representatives voted, largely along party lines, to admonish Trump and declare his statements as "racist." However, tensions only increased when, at a July 17 campaign rally in North Carolina, Trump supporters began chanting "Send her back!" after the president began criticizing Omar during his speech. The White House subsequently claimed that Trump had tried to stop the chant by continuing to speak, but footage of the event shows the president stood silent for nearly 15 seconds until the chant had died down before he continued.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) answers questions during a press conference at the Capitol on July 11, 2019 in Washington, D.C. Pelosi answered a range of questions including comments on a recent flap with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and more progressive members of the House Democratic caucus.