The Battle Of Baltimore
 
By now you are aware of the outrage du jour.  President Trump dared to call out Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ethically-challenged congressman from Baltimore, for caring more about migrants at the border while his constituents continue to live in poverty. 
 
Here's what the president tweeted:
 
"Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous. His district is considered the Worst in the USA."
 
Trump also tweeted that Cummings's district is "a disgusting rat and rodent infested mess." 
 
The president is right.  But the race-baiting hive immediately jumped into action, screaming yet again that pointing out the suffering of those in West Baltimore was somehow proof of Trump's racism. 
 
Of course, for decades when Republican presidents didn't talk enough about America's cities the left accused them of racism for not caring about America's urban centers.
 
Baltimore has been under the control of the Democrat Party for decades.  It has been 52 years since Baltimore last had a Republican mayor.  Here are the facts: 

• Baltimore's notorious mean streets served as the venue for a rugged TV show called "The Wire."  Two weeks ago, Baltimore's deputy police commissioner was robbed at gunpoint.  

• The New York Times recently noted that "violent crime in Baltimore has spiked to levels unseen for a quarter century."  

• The Baltimore Sun wrote in September, "Baltimore had the worst homicide rate among the nation's 50 largest cities last year and the second-highest violent crime rate overall." 

• The Democrats running Baltimore have invested heavily in the Inner Harbor hoping to revitalize the city.  It's a nice area, but I wouldn't go at night because that's when the problems of West Baltimore creep into the harbor district. 

• The vast majority of Maryland's failing schools are located in Baltimore.  

• The last mayor of Baltimore resigned in a corruption scandal.  

• And the city's rat and rodent problem is so out-of-control that PBS made a documentary about it! 

In fact, conditions in Baltimore are so bad that after walking around West Baltimore in 2015, Bernie Sanders declared, "You would think that you were in a third world country." 
 
I don't remember the national media outrage about Sanders's "racism."
 
How is Trump's tweet racist?  He did not mention race.  He is speaking in defense of minority families ignored by the city's Democrat establishment.
 
For decades, the left has said that conservatives don't care about America's cities. Trump cares about our cities -- he's from New York City.  He said that America can't be great again unless our cities are great again.  He has pushed for a big infrastructure bill that would help rebuild our cities.
 
Unlike Obama, Trump reformed the criminal justice system so that minority men in cities like Baltimore might get a second chance.  Unlike Obama, Trump is growing the economy, which is why the minority unemployment rate is near historic lows.
 
Al Sharpton held a press conference in Baltimore this morning.  Jesse Jackson can't be far behind.  AOC plus three will probably parachute in soon.  Race baiters one and all.
 
The president should stick to his guns.
 
 
 
Two Big Wins
 
President Trump scored two big wins in the battle for border security late Friday afternoon. 
 
First, the Supreme Court ruled 5-to-4 to lift lower court injunctions against the president's national emergency declaration on the southern border.  The ruling allows the White House to spend $2.5 billion of Pentagon funds on border wall construction projects while the case remains under appeal. 
 
Predictably, the decision fell along ideological lines -- all five conservatives voted to allow the administration to secure the border while all four liberals voted against securing the border.
 
In addition, the president announced that Guatemala reversed course and signed a "safe third country agreement" with the U.S. on Friday. 
 
That means that migrants from Honduras and El Salvador who want to claim refugee status in the U.S. will have to claim asylum in the first country they reach, in this case Guatemala.  They must remain there while their claims are processed and verified.
 
This is important because the vast majority of asylum claims from Central America are rejected.  These claims take a long time to process and the migrants often disappear into the interior of our country. 
 
 
 
Ratcliffe Named DNI
 
The president announced over the weekend that Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats is stepping down and that Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) would take his place later next month. 
 
Ratcliffe has been an outspoken critic of the Deep State throughout the Russia/Mueller investigation.  As you may recall, he slammed Robert Mueller last week for perverting the standards of our justice system with the phony claim that the president could not be exonerated.  That was never Mueller's call to make.
 
I am hopeful that Ratcliffe's appointment will give Attorney General William Barr a committed ally in his effort to fully investigate the origins of the Russia collusion hoax.