Residents of Baltimore are working to showcase the best that their hometown has to offer, just days after President Trump described the city as a "a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess."
Trump's epithets came amid a Twitter tirade against Baltimore's congressional Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who chairs the House Oversight Committee and has been a staunch critic of the president.
"His district is considered the Worst in the USA," Trump added. "If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place." The president also took a hit at residents of Baltimore.
Cummings dismissed the president's critique, saying in a tweet "each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors."
The city, moreover, has soundly rejected the president's characterization.
"People are furious, of course. People know that Baltimore is not how [Trump] describes it," Greg Tucker, the co-founder of the forthcoming website We Are Baltimore told Cheddar. "Indeed Baltimore has challenges. Indeed Baltimore has suffered years of underinvestment in critical neighborhoods… yet too often Baltimore is characterized solely by our worst elements."
"We Are Baltimore," which was in the works before Trump's tweets, will aggregate stories from residents and thriving local businesses to counter the negative narrative of the city.
It will "provide a definitive platform where we can aggregate and amplify the many positives, the many assets of Baltimore," Tucker added.
In a statement, Baltimore's Mayor Bernard C. Jack Young also slammed the president for using "hurtful and dangerous" rhetoric to "denigrate a vibrant American City."
Trump is "a disappointment to the people of Baltimore, our country, and to the world," Young added.
The president's invocation of rodents and infestations to describe a city that is more than 60 percent black was widely rebuked as using racist terms that have been historically used to demonize minorities.
Civil rights icon Reverend Al Sharpton said from a press conference in Baltimore on Monday that Trump had attacked the city in "the most bigoted and racist way."
"He has a particular venom for blacks and people of color," Sharpton said. "He doesn't refer to any of his other opponents or critics as infested."
Trump said "Democrats always play the Race Card" and criticized Sharpton as a "a con man, a troublemaker" on Twitter ahead of the press conference. He also doubled down early Monday morning on his critique of Cummings, who has represented Maryland's 7th congressional district since 1996. "25 years of all talk, no action!" Trump tweeted.
Several 2020 Democratic presidential candidates including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) — whose campaign is headquartered in Baltimore — condemned Trump's remarks.
Yet the most scathing rebuke came from the Baltimore Sun's editorial board, which wrote "Better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one."
Trending on Twitter over the weekend was #TrumpIsARat.
In a statement to Cheddar, Twitter confirmed that Trump's tweets do not violate the platform's rules regarding the use of dehumanizing language.
A new analysis reveals that for more than two decades, the West has been the driest it has ever been since 800 A.D. The drought which began in 2000 has brought more devastating wildfires and draining water reserves well below healthy levels. Climate Scientists and Adjunct Associate Research Scientist at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University,Benjamin Cook, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
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For black history month, Cheddar is highlighting black business leaders who are driving the need for representation forward. On February 10, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hosted an event called 'Developing the Black-Owned Business Ecosystem.' The virtual event was organized under the lobbying group's two initiatives -- the Equality of Opportunity Initiative, and the Coalition to Back Black Businesses. The event highlighted the developments needed to develop more black-owned businesses in the U.S. Dr. Anthony Wilbon, Dean of the School of Business at Howard University, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss his experience as a speaker at the event.
A newly declassified letter by senators Ron Wyden and Martin Heinrich claimed the CIA. has been conducting a Secret Surveillance Program which has been collecting a bulk of data from American citizens. The letter which was written in April of 2021 urges the CIA to come clean about the kind of data it collects and how many Americans have been impacted. According to these two senators, the program did not have the safeguards of congressional oversight.
Art Hogan, Chief Market Strategist at National Securities, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says investors are taking a wait-and-see approach when it comes to the situation between Russia and the Ukraine and elaborates on the impact higher oil prices stemming from the conflict would have on the market.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that diplomacy is still possible, while U.S. officials warn that an attack on Ukraine is imminent. Cheddar News speaks with James Astill, Washington bureau chief of The Economist on the latest developments in Eastern Europe.
As the number of Russian troops rose to 130,000 along its Ukrainian border, hopes for a diplomatic solution remain among world leaders. Jason McMann, head of geopolitical risk analysis at Morning Consult, joined Cheddar News to break down the fluid situation. "We saw signs pointing towards an increase in tensions between Ukraine and Russia, whereas today we're seeing some signs that the Russian government may be willing to continue down a path of diplomatic negotiations to try and find some sort of non-military solution," he said.
