Twitter-Dee, Twitter-Dumb
Donald Trump is chomping at the bit.
There’ve been four nights of Democratic debates, but he hasn’t figured out a way to jump on stage with the candidates to proclaim they’re all going to hell.
Instead, he rage-tweets between debate nights, in hopes he can command news cycles with his childish attacks on people he deems to be his enemies.
Recently, within a matter of a couple of days, he managed to launch temper tantrums against 10 members of Congress; four U.S. companies; three U.S. allies, and two U.S. cities.
There are times when his tweets are hilariously shameful.
On July 28, (at 1:35 PM) he wrote, “Dems always play the race card when they are unable to win with facts.”
Less than an hour later (at 2:18 PM) he wrote, “If racist Elijah Cummings…”
– No need to finish that quote. He was, in short, playing the race card!
The same “race card” he’d accused “Dems” of an hour earlier.
His Elijah Cummings Ensemble of Tweets was bafflingly odd.
It started a couple of days earlier when Trump decided that the popular, long term congressman from Maryland’s 7th district is a bully.
Cummings, who’s black, is also the chairman of the powerful House Oversight Committee, which is conducting investigations into the Trump administration.
That’s all Trump needed.
It’s all he ever needs.
Congressional oversight is a serious part of what Congress does.
It’s a given.
Trump never understood that.
Instead, he landed a series of low blows, with some phony allusions about Cummings’ handling of his congressional district.
“He does NOTHING for his very poor, very dangerous and very badly run district,” he tweeted on July 27.
For starters, while Cummings’ district does have some poverty and crime, it’s also the home of the world-renowned Johns Hopkins University and Hospital, as well as the Baltimore Museum of Art.
It’s also the home of the Preakness Stakes (the second jewel of the triple crown hose race) – at Pimlico Race Course.
There may be some challenges in that district, (every district has challenges) but it certainly isn’t a “very poor, very badly run district.”
Trump has a history of making disparaging remarks about black members of Congress who disagree with him.
John Lewis is a highly respected congressman and Civil Rights icon from Georgia.
Back in January 2017, a few days before Trump’s inauguration, Lewis announced he wouldn’t be attending the event.
Trump tweeted, “Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart…”
Lewis’ district isn’t falling apart.
Trump didn’t know that. He just pounced on Lewis – claiming he should “focus on the burning and crime-infested inner-cities,” because he prejudged Lewis and his role in Congress.
Trump seems to have a special dislike of black women in Congress.
He claims California’s Maxine Waters is “an extremely low IQ person.”
He’s called Florida’s Frederica Wilson “wacky.”
And there’s that nasty business about Trump telling four congresswomen of color to go back to where they’re from, Even though all four of them are U.S. citizens. And three of the four were born in the United States.
It’s no wonder there’s an increasing number of people who aren’t sugarcoating their criticisms about his racial insensitivity.
He’s picked fights with NFL players because they didn’t do what he wanted to them to do during the playing of National Anthem.
Back in August of last year, he claimed that CNN’s Don Lemon is the “dumbest man on television,” but that the man he was interviewing at the time, LeBron James, is even dumber than Lemon.
All of this adds up to trouble for Trump’s fellow Republicans, who would like to convince the public that they’re hard at work doing the jobs they were elected to do, but who are confronted daily about Trump’s racist tweets.
It’s become a humorous game of cat-and-mouse, watching Republicans in Washington, fruitlessly trying to avoid answering reporter’s questions about Trump’s latest hissy-fit.
You sort of feel sorry for them.
Maybe not.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20-year TV news veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.