Fox News host Chris Wallace took acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney to task on Sunday over President Donald Trump’s tweets accusing Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) of letting his majority black district in Baltimore become a “rat infested mess.”
Trump’s attacks rang familiar to his racist tweets claiming Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) come from “totally broken and crime infested places” two weeks ago.
Mulvaney defended the tweets, insisting that they have “absolutely zero to do with race” and that Trump was merely pushing back against Cummings’ description of the abhorrent conditions of the migrant detention centers.
Wallace wasn’t buying it.
“You say it has little to do with race. There is a clear pattern here, Mick,” the Fox host said, pointing out Trump’s 2017 tweets about civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis (D-GA)’s “crime infested” district.
“‘Infested,’” Wallace quoted. “It sounds like vermin. It sounds subhuman and these are all six members of congress who are people of color.”
“I think you’re spending way too much time reading between the lines,” Mulvaney said.
“I’m not reading between the lines, I’m reading the lines,” Wallace shot back.
Watch Wallace and Mulvaney below:
Chris Wallace pressed Mulvaney on Trump's racist tweets about Baltimore: "I'm not reading between the lines, I'm reading the lines." pic.twitter.com/0AkFOdp9go
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) July 28, 2019
