CNN Anchor Victor Blackwell Defends Hometown Baltimore Against Trump Attack

CNN anchor Victor Blackwell, a Baltimore native, became emotional while responding to President Donald Trump's tweets calling Rep. Elijah Cummings' (D-MD) district a "very dangerous & filthy place" and calls out the President's repeated use of the word "infested" while attacking minority lawmakers.

The complete transcript of the segment follows:

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: This morning the president attacked another member of Congress on twitter. This time it's House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings. He wrote this, "Cummings’ 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 and filthy place. No human being would want to live there."   

"Infested" – that’s usually reserved for references to rodents and insects, but we've seen the president invoke infestation to criticize lawmakers before. You see a pattern here? Just two weeks ago President Trump attacked four minority Congresswomen. "Why don't they go back to the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came." Reminder, three of them were born here; all of them are American. Infested he says. 

A week before his inauguration, January 2017, "Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district which is in horrible shape and falling apart, not to mention crime infested." Donald Trump has tweeted more than 43,000 times. He's insulted thousands of people, many different types of people but when he tweets about infestation, it's about black and brown people. 

September 2014, at the height of an urgent health emergency, "Why are we sending thousands of ill-trained soldiers into Ebola infested areas of Africa. Bring the plague to the U.S.? Obama is so stupid." Infested he says. 

"There's a revolution going on in California.  So many sanctuary areas want out of this ridiculous crime infested and breeding concept."  Infested he says. The president says about Congressman Cummings district that no human would want to live there. 

You know who did, Mr. President? I did.  From the day I was brought home from the hospital to the day I left for college, and a lot of people I care about still do. There are challenges no doubt, but people are proud of their community. I don't want to sound self-righteous, but people get up and go to work there. They care for their families there. They love their children who pledge allegiance to the flag just like people who live in districts of Congressmen who support you, sir. They are Americans, too. 

We'll be right back.