Former NFL star Jack Brewer claims he inspired President Donald Trump’s statements on Baltimore and Democratic Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings.
“I had a chance to meet with President Trump, and I told him please call out Elijah Cummings and Baltimore. I asked him to do that … and he did it,” the former football player said recently during a segment on Fox’s Deep Dive.
Brewer also blamed problems in urban communities on “people [who] are not held accountable by their peers,” and a loss of “spirituality.” (RELATED: What’s Baltimore Really Like? Residents Sound Off About Its Problems)
He called for a spiritual re-awakening in America.
“You got to get back and have some type of spirituality to have a gauge, to have a gauge of humanness … to really want to give and want to do right,” he said. “Baltimore has 4 people a day getting shot, Chicago has 8 people a day getting shot we gotta wake up and understand that this is cultural.”
Brewer is a vocal supporter of Trump who previously claimed the president has had a positive effect on the black community.
Trump began a national conversation around Baltimore and the problems it has with crime and decay late last month with a series of tweets directed at Cummings, the congressman who represents large parts of the city.
….As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2019
Since then, pundits on both sides have issued statements on the matter.
In slamming Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings’s 7th District as “rodent infested,” Trump borrows from the rhetoric that first segregated Baltimore, @APaigeOutofHist writes. https://t.co/xl4Aqdbl5j
— CityLab (@CityLab) July 29, 2019
Some support the president’s observations, others allege it was racist for Trump to critique Baltimore in such a way.