The Rev. Al Sharpton on Monday called out President Trump for his rhetoric when referring to people of color after the president’s recent attacks on the city of Baltimore.
“He attacks everybody. I know Donald Trump, he’s not mature enough to take criticism … he’s like a child,” Sharpton said at the news conference in Charm City. “But he has a particular venom for blacks and people of color.”
{mosads}”He attacks [Speaker] Nancy Pelosi, he attacks [Senate Democratic Leader] Chuck Schumer, he attacks other whites, but he never said that their districts or their states are places that no human beings want to live,” Sharpton, the founder of the nonprofit National Action Network, said, citing Trump’s criticism of the city as violent.
Sharpton said Monday’s National Action Network conference, which was previously planned and came after Trump spent the weekend attacking Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and the city of Baltimore in a series of tweets, was not a “partisan effort.”
At the conference, former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele also spoke about Trump’s rhetoric.
“Little did I know that Mr. Trump was going to, on the eve of this, attack the congressman from this city — and not only the congressman but the people of this city — in the most bigoted and racist way,” Sharpton said.
Trump lashed out at Baltimore and Cummings this weekend, calling the city “disgusting” and “rodent infested” and saying the longtime lawmaker has done “so little” for its residents.
Trump later doubled down on his attacks and said there was “nothing racist” about the tweets, while lashing out at Cummings and calling him a racist.
Trump continued his attacks before the news conference Monday, calling Sharpton a “troublemaker” and a “con man” who “hates whites.”
Sharpton said that Trump can “say what he wants.”
“Call me a troublemaker. Yes, I make trouble for bigots,” Sharpton said, noting he’s sparred with Trump for 25 years over the Central Park jogger case and birtherism. “As far as me being a con man, if he really thought I was a con man he’d be nominating me for his Cabinet.”
He also defended Cummings.
“Elijah Cummings is a respected and well-regarded member of Congress,” Sharpton said. “And for him to be angry at Mr. Cummings because Mr. Cummings has the moral standard to question how migrant children are being treated at the border is an abomination to me.”
The tweets attacking Cummings followed the president’s recent attacks directed at freshman Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.) and Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), all of whom are women of color.
Trump said the lawmakers should “go back” to the “totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”