President Donald Trump, with his attacks on Rep. Elijah Cummings, was bringing the message that the Democratic Party has taken Baltimore and other cities for granted too long, Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Tuesday.
"Every four years like clockwork, we hear Republicans are racist," McDaniel told CNN's "New Day." "Democrats get continually elected and problems aren't being solved. In Baltimore and Detroit, in cities across the country where Democrats are at the helm, we are not seeing improvements."
Meanwhile, the media is not reporting about how Trump has been a "champion for the African-American community," McDaniel complained.
"You've got to tell the story of the criminal justice reform and low unemployment and loan forgiveness ... and economic opportunities," she said.
McDaniel said that with Trump's tweets against Cummings, he was "making a point to Democratic lawmakers, which is, you represent districts who are in distress, and you're more concerned about how do we get free healthcare for people coming to this country illegally, you're more concerned about an investigation of Russia."
She added that he was also asking why politicians are not focusing on people on their districts and instead focusing on people outside them.
Meanwhile, McDaniel said she does not know Cummings, and could not comment on Trump's claims that he's a racist.
"What I will say, growing up minutes from Detroit, we have a lot of urban communities that have been misrepresented by Democrats," said McDaniel, and with Baltimore, "we have a mayor in jail for corruption. We have a city under investigation right now for $200 million in federal funds that came for removing 17,000 vacant homes, and a high murder rate. Let's focus on the problems we have here at home."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.