Trump again disparaged Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., whom he has accused in recent days of running a “disgusting” congressional district.
“Baltimore is an example of what corrupt government leads to,” Trump said to reporters as he left for the event in Virginia. “I feel so sorry for the people of Baltimore, and if they ask me, we will get involved.”
Facing questions about his apparent willingness to divide his supporters and opponents along racial lines in recent days, Trump said that he was “the least racist person there is anywhere in the world.” Then he called the Rev. Al Sharpton, another recent adversary, “a racist.”
This line of self-defense came hours after the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, which represents members of the House of Delegates and state Senate, said in a statement that its members cannot “in good conscience sit silently” as a president who has promoted racial divisions is given such a prominent platform.
“It is impossible to ignore the emblem of hate and disdain that the president represents,” the caucus said in its statement. The statement added that Trump’s “repeated attacks on black legislators and comments about black communities” make him “ill-suited to honor and commemorate such a monumental period in history, especially if this nation is to move forward with the ideals of ‘democracy, inclusion, and opportunity.’”
The lawmakers’ protest came as Trump has employed racist tropes in a caustic war of words with critics. He told four Democratic congresswomen of color to “go back” to their home countries, even though three were born in the United States and the fourth was naturalized as a teenager. In recent days, he has repeatedly assailed Cummings and his “rat and rodent infested” majority-black district and targeted other foes like Sharpton, who he said “Hates Whites & Cops.”
As he took questions for over 10 minutes, Trump appeared not to know that a boycott was in place, saying he would be “shocked” if opponents of color were declining to attend the event.
“If that’s the case, they’re fighting against their people,” Trump said, repeating an unverified claim that his administration had been receiving calls nonstop praising his comments on Baltimore. “The African American people have been calling the White House. They have never been so happy about what a president has done.”
The ceremony Tuesday at the Jamestown Settlement Museum is meant to mark the first meeting of elected legislators in the new world. On July 30, 1619, a group of 22 representatives of plantations or settlements gathered in a church in Jamestown for the first time in what would be known as the House of Burgesses, the precursor to state legislatures and Congress in the centuries to come.
The Tuesday event already was fraught for African American lawmakers because in those days only white male property holders were eligible to vote. Moreover, this year also represents the 400th anniversary of the first slaves brought to the colonies that would later become the United States.
The caucus is holding alternative events in Richmond and will focus “on those individuals who fought for a more just, equitable, and inclusive democracy,” said Sen. Jennifer McClellan, the group’s vice chair.
But Lt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax, Virginia’s only African American statewide elected official, will attend Tuesday’s ceremony, saying the twin anniversaries “far supersede the petty and racist actions of the current occupant of the White House.”
In an essay posted on Medium, he said, “The bigoted words of the current president will thankfully soon be swept into the dustbin of history. Our democracy, born in Virginia, will live on.”
Virginia has been roiled by its own controversies this year. Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, has rebuffed widespread calls to resign after the discovery of a 1984 medical school yearbook that included a picture of a man in blackface and another in Ku Klux Klan robes on his personal page. Northam at first admitted being in the photograph, then denied that he was either man.
The state’s attorney general, Mark R. Herring, later admitted that he once wore blackface at a party as a college student. And Fairfax has been accused of sexual assault by two women.
On Tuesday, Trump dismissed questions about whether he was hurting himself politically by relentlessly fueling racial tensions in recent days.
“I think I’m helping myself,” Trump said. “These people are living in hell in Baltimore.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.