President Donald Trump lashed out at black civil rights leader Al Sharpton Monday on Twitter after days of attacks against the city of Baltimore and Congressman Elijah Cummings.
Sharpton tweeted that he was en route to Baltimore with a photo of himself on an escalator in Washington, D.C. with the caption, “Arrived in DC from Atlanta, headed to Baltimore. Long day but can’t stop.”
This prompted the president to call the civil rights leader a “con man, a troublemaker” who is “always looking for a score.” He ended his tweet with, “Hates Whites & Cops.”
Trump on Saturday and Sunday sent more than a dozen tweets assailing Cummings, which began with the president calling his district a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”
Sharpton is scheduled to hold a press conference in the city at the center of the controversy in an effort to denounce Trump’s attacks on Cummings.
The former Democratic presidential candidate and MSNBC talk show host will be speaking alongside Michael Steele, who was the former chair of the Republican National Committee and was once Maryland’s lieutenant governor, according to The Washington Post .
Sharpton was quick to respond to the president’s attacks by tweeting a picture of Trump attending a National Action Network conference in 2006 talking to Sharpton, singer James Brown and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson.
Trump at NAN Convention 2006 telling James Brown and Jesse Jackson why he respects my work. Different tune now. pic.twitter.com/mvNQmPdLUh
— Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) July 29, 2019
Trump renewed his attacks on Baltimore and Cummings on Monday, asserting in a tweet that the city “has the worst Crimes Statistics in the Nation.”
The president then tweeted another jab at Sharpton.
Al Sharpton would always ask me to go to his events. He would say, “it’s a personal favor to me.” Seldom, but sometimes, I would go. It was fine. He came to my office in T.T. during the presidential campaign to apologize for the way he was talking about me. Just a conman at work!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2019
Sharpton replied to Trump calling the president a “bigot.”
Trump says I’m a troublemaker & con man. I do make trouble for bigots. If he really thought I was a con man he would want me in his cabinet.
— Reverend Al Sharpton (@TheRevAl) July 29, 2019
Cummings has been vocal about the treatment of migrant children at detention facilities at the U.S.-Mexico border and has called it “government sponsored child abuse.”
Trump accused the lawmaker of neglecting his district and of unspecified corruption, which the president said should be investigated.
The president has denied allegations that his comments over the matter are racist.
White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, told Fox News Sunday that the president’s controversial comments were not racist. He said they were only in response to Cummings’ criticism of conditions, widely reported and condemned, at migrant detention centers at the southern border.
“When the president hears lies like that, he’s going to fight back,” Mulvaney said. “It has absolutely zero to do with race. This is what the president does. He fights, and he’s not wrong to do so.”
Some of Trump’s harshest criticisms have been aimed at minority lawmakers. That includes the four first-term female congresswomen known as “The Squad” and Representative Maxine Waters of California, whom the president has repeatedly called “low IQ” on Twitter.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters, an extraordinarily low IQ person, has become, together with Nancy Pelosi, the Face of the Democrat Party. She has just called for harm to supporters, of which there are many, of the Make America Great Again movement. Be careful what you wish for Max!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2018
The Baltimore Sun released an explosive editorial on Saturday night following Trump’s tweets, saying it was “better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one.”