A crowd of activists toppled the marble Christopher Columbus statue near Little Italy Saturday night and dumped it into the Inner Harbor amid Fourth of July firework displays across the city.

Two weeks ago, an anti-racist protest group known as Baltimore Bloc publicly warned Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young that activists planned to take down the city’s Columbus monuments if his administration did not act to remove them.

The most prominent of three city monuments to Columbus, the statue at the eastern edge of the Inner Harbor was unveiled by President Ronald Reagan and Mayor William Donald Schaefer in 1984 and dedicated with the inscription to the “Discoverer of America.” The 14-foot statue was paid for by a citywide fundraising campaign led by the Italian American Organizations United of Maryland.

Two years ago year this summer, 19 months after a city commission recommended two of the city’s four Confederate monuments be taken down and two more receive educational plaques, then-Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered the removal of all four.

Lester Davis, a spokesman for Young, told the Baltimore Sun that the destruction of Columbus statue is part of a “re-examination taking place nationally and globally around some of these monuments and statues that may represent different things to different people.”

City Council President Brandon Scott, who won last month’s Democratic mayoral primary, issued a statement Saturday night saying he supports both the Baltimore’s Italian-American community and Baltimore’s indigenous community. “I cannot, however, support Columbus,” Scott said.

In 2016, Scott introduced a bill that would’ve renamed Columbus Day in the city to Indigenous Peoples Day. Scott said the intention of the legislation, which did not pass, was “to honor the many peoples inhabiting North America before its colonization by European settlers.”

Scott said he suggested to former Mayor Catherine Pugh that she remove the Columbus statue along with the city’s Confederate statues following a violent conflict between white supremacists and anti-racism activists in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Baltimore City Councilman Ryan Dorsey has introduced a bill that would rededicate the Columbus obelisk at Herring Run to the victims of police brutality.

In a statement Sunday, Governor Larry Hogan condemned the destruction of the Columbus statue and said Baltimore leaders had lost “control of the city and their own streets.”

“While we support peaceful protests and constructive dialogue on whether and how to put certain monuments in context or move them to museums or storage through a legal process, lawlessness, vandalism, and destruction of public property are completely unacceptable,” Hogan said. “That is the antithesis of democracy and should be condemned by everyone, regardless of their politics. Baltimore City leaders need to regain control of their own streets and immediately start making them safer.”

Several state delegates representing Baltimore County and Harford County and a group of Italian-American activists demanded Young and Hogan protect the city’s statues and monuments erected to honor Christopher Columbus at a June 29 press conference at the Inner Harbor.

In a tweet Saturday night, Del. Kathy Szeliga called the pulling down of the Columbus memorial on July 4 “shameful,” and asked where the police and Mayor Young were while the statue was being toppled. She suggested citizens, “move out of Baltimore City while you can if you still live there.”

“This is deeply personal and an affront to the Italian American community and all law-abiding Marylanders,” tweeted State Del. Nino Mangione, a Republican from Baltimore County. “The city of Baltimore has been disgraced once again. America weeps at this outrage.”

Baltimore’s annual October Columbus Day Commemoration and Italian Heritage Festival and parade, approaching 130 years, is believed to be the longest-running celebration in honor of Columbus in the country.

In his speech on July 4, President Donald Trump pledged to “defend, protect, and preserve American way of life, which began in 1492 when Columbus discovered America.”

The Italian-born explorer’s legacy has received increased scrutiny in recent decades as his brutal treatment of the native people of the Caribbean islands and Central America—including mass slaughter, forced mining, enslavement, and child rape—has become better known and understood.

Popular myths regarding Columbus, long taught in schools, have also been exposed by scholars, changing public perception of the nature of his voyages. Columbus did not prove the “flat Earth” theory wrong. Nor was Columbus the first European to sail to the continent, as Scandinavians sailors had done so centuries earlier. Those beliefs and others took hold in the United States after acclaimed writer Washington Irving popularized an “Americanized” Columbus in a best-selling fictionalized historical biography in 1828.

With the pulling down of the statue, Baltimore joins a growing list of cities this summer, including Richmond, Montgomery, Boston, and St. Paul, that have witnessed the toppling of Confederate and Columbus memorials. Numerous cities across the country have made plans to remove statues.

After the initial round of ballot tallying last week, 36-year-old City Council President Brandon Scott rallied as mail-in votes were counted over the past several days—pulling out a close victory over former Mayor Sheila Dixon in the Democratic primary for mayor, according to results posted Tuesday night.

In a crowded field with 24 candidates receiving votes, Scott won 29.4 percent of the tally. Dixon claimed 27.7 percent of the ballots cast—a margin of 2,358 votes. The final count remains unofficial and is not expected to be certified before Friday. Roughly 2,000 ballots remain outstanding.

Dixon, 66, also a former city council president, became Baltimore’s first female mayor in 2007 after Martin O’Malley was sworn in as governor. She resigned as part of a plea deal after being charged with multiple felonies and misdemeanors, including theft, perjury, and misconduct in office.

Scott will face Republican Shannon Wright, a nonprofit executive, in this fall’s general election. With a nearly 10-1 Democratic to Republican Party registration advantage in the city, Scott’s victory is all but assured in November.

“Tonight, we celebrate a hard-fought victory for the future of Baltimore,” Scott said in a statement. “From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank my family, my team, our volunteers, those who voted for a new way forward for Baltimore, and everyone who believes change is not just possible, but long overdue. Our city stands at a crossroads. Baltimore will only move forward as a city united, not divided. It will take all of us to build a city that is safe, equitable, and accountable. As a son of Baltimore, I could not be more honored to lead our great city in this critical moment and carry the work forward with you.”

Here are five things to know about Scott:

The City Council Elected Him as President Following Catherine Pugh’s Resignation

The city council elected Scott its president after Bernard C. “Jack” Young ascended to the mayor’s office following former Mayor Catherine Pugh’s resignation in the wake of the Healthy Holly children’s book scandal. Scott prevailed after a weekend-long, behind-closed-doors fight with Young’s chosen successor—Council Vice President Sharon Green Middleton. Initially, it appeared that neither Scott nor Middleton had the votes to prevail, but when the scales tipped in Scott’s favor, council members ultimately supported him 14-0.

He Was One of the Youngest Candidates Elected to Citywide Office

A subject in 2018’s well-received documentary Charm City, Scott was one of the youngest candidates ever elected to citywide office at 27. After growing up in Park Heights, he graduated from Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School, where he ran track and cross country, and then studied political science at St. Mary’s College in Southern Maryland. He got his start in politics as a liaison in the office of then-City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who later became mayor. Scott will be significantly younger than the age of the average U.S. mayor—which is 56, according to a recent study. But the ambitious Scott would be the same age as Martin O’Malley when O’Malley ran for mayor and with several more years of elected experience. He lives in the city’s Frankford Neighborhood.

He Has a Diverse Coalition of Support

In mid-May, a Baltimore Sun, WYPR, and the University of Baltimore poll showed Scott was the only major mayoral candidate with near equal support among both black (16 percent) and white (17 percent) voters. Scott, who also had a diverse coalition of support, led among voters younger than 35 and also younger than 50. His late voting surge in ballots arriving in the final days before the June 2 postmark deadline indicate that he continued to win support as he marched with protestors in the city following the death of George Floyd. “I can talk young, old; rich, poor; white, black; gay, straight; trap house, board room,” Scott told the Baltimore Fishbowl following that poll. “No one else can do that in this race. No one else has that flexibility in this race.”

He Supports Defunding the Police

Scott was widely viewed as the most progressive of the top-tier candidates in the race. He has pushed for reforms that would curtail some of the power of inherit in Baltimore’s strong mayor even as he ran for the office. As the chair of the Council’s Public Safety Committee from 2016 until he became city council president, Scott advocated a holistic approach to crime reduction and for Baltimore police department reform. He co-founded the anti-violence group 300 Men March and is close to Ceasefire co-founder Erricka Bridgeford. “Baltimore must re-allocate its budget away from the current dependence on the police department,” Scott tweeted this week. “We must diversify our investments into agencies that focus on proactively developing our young people and communities.”

He Passed Groundbreaking Legislation Advocating for Racial Equity

Scott previously served as a member of the Budget and Appropriations and Judiciary and Legislative Investigations committees. In 2018, he introduced and passed groundbreaking legislation that created an equity assessment program in Baltimore that requires all city agency decisions—and their operating budgets, capital budgets, and proposed legislation—to be weighed through an equity lens.

Former Baltimore City mayor Catherine Pugh was sentenced to three years in prison and three years probation Thursday as a result of conspiracy and tax evasion charges resulting from the sale of her Healthy Holly children’s books. Prosecutors were seeking a five-year sentence, and Pugh faced a maximum of 30 years in prison. Pugh will also be forced to pay restitution to the University of Maryland Medical Center and Maryland Auto Insurance, two of the organizations she sold books to. All copies of Healthy Holly in government custody will be destroyed.

Much has been speculated upon regarding how much time—if any—Pugh would serve in prison, and if the sentence delivered by U.S. District Judge Deborah Chasnow would send a message intended to prevent further political corruption in Baltimore.

“If you hold yourself up to a higher office, you’ve got to hold yourself up to a higher standard,” says Michael B. Runnels, associate professor of law and social responsibility at Loyola University Maryland. “Mayor Pugh is just the latest in a series of mayors who have run afoul in these types of getting a hand caught in the cookie jar dynamic.”

Pugh’s dealings are the latest in a series of corruption scandals involving local officials. In 2017, Gary Brown, a Pugh aide who has also been implicated in the Healthy Holly scandal, was charged with making illegal campaign contributions. In 2018, former Maryland senator Nathaniel Oaks was sentenced to three and half years in prison on corruption charges. Earlier this year, Tawanna Gaines, a former Maryland state lawmaker, was sentenced to six months in prison for wire fraud. Also earlier this year, Cheryl Glenn, a former Balitmore state delegate, pled guilty to taking bribes for political favors.

“It gets exhausting to see this unrelenting negative press in Baltimore,” Runnels says. “It’s almost like we take one step forward and two steps back.”

When asked his thoughts on Pugh’s sentencing earlier this week, Baltimore mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young offered no comment. In a statement, City Council President Brandon Scott did not specifically share his thoughts on Pugh’s sentencing, but offered that the occasion marked “an opportunity to move forward” for her and the city.
But in the past several weeks, local politicians including Kweisi Mfume, who recently won the Democratic nomination to succeed Congressman Elijah Cummings, and friends of the mayor, like former Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke, have requested leniency for Pugh. On the eve of the sentencing, Pugh’s lawyers released a 13-minute video in which she asks for forgiveness. At the sentencing hearing, they referenced Pugh’s public service to Baltimore and dedication to the city as reasons why she should not receive heavy prison time.

But in issuing her verdict, Chasanow sent a clear message that the extent and depth of Pugh’s crimes warranted multiple years of prison time.

“Public corruption should be treated with great scrutiny and seriousness,” says Roger Hartley, the dean of College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore. “Especially in a situation like this where there was some real forethought behind selling books to large donors who might then be in a position for currying favor for contracts later with the city.”

Pugh’s sentencing wraps up an almost year-long saga, as The Sun first reported on the scandal in March of 2019. For Hartley, the conclusion of the former mayor’s trial marks the closing of a chapter, as the city looks forward toward a mayoral election.

“After this decision, so many people in the city want to move forward with a strong new mayor and a strong government that is transparent, legitimate, and trustworthy,” he says. “I think that’s what the voters, businesses, and citizens of this city are looking for right now.”

Throughout the recent discussions surrounding the redevelopment of Lexington Market, led by Baltimore-based development firm Seawall, preserving its integrity and ensuring the safety of the community have been at the forefront. The longest continually running market in the United States has remained open—and will remain open during construction—in the midst of considerations about its next chapter.

That journey will officially begin with a groundbreaking ceremony featuring remarks by Governor Larry Hogan and Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young on Tuesday, February 18.

At the most recent in a series of public meetings in the market’s arcade building last week, city leaders and developers gave a status update on the project to 150 attendees. A panel featuring members of law enforcement and government officials, including councilman Eric Costello and City Council President Brandon Scott, addressed streetscape safety, environmental concerns, and stakeholders’ plans to tackle these issues.

“There’s fear and hope in the community,” says Pickett Slater Harrington, head of Seawall’s community engagement team who served as the meeting’s moderator. “There is this fear of things changing. Lexington Market has been around for 230 years, and it’s personal to people and part of the fabric of Baltimore.”

The transformation of Lexington Market is a $40 million dollar project funded by New Market Tax Credits, bank loans, city grants, and a $2 million contribution from the market itself. Plans call for a new market building constructed on the current south parking lot, the demolition of the arcade building to pave the way for a pedestrian plaza on Lexington Street, and the salvaging of the East Market in a phase two redevelopment. The current structure will remain open during renovations and the full revamp is slated to be completed by 2021.

At last week’s meeting, attendees submitted comment cards with pressing questions such as how to combat potential crime, create sustainable change in safety measures, and curb drug dealing in the area. The common thread of city leaders’ answers to these questions was a need for collaboration.

“Lexington Market is a Baltimore asset,” Slater Harrington says. “To have city leadership sit here and say that they’re invested in Lexington Market is huge symbolically. That’s important in developing a vision for an institutional icon.”

City leaders were also asked to share their vision for the market. Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young harkened back to memories of visiting the market in its “glory days” with his grandmother. Major Daryl Gaines, Commanding Officer of the Baltimore Police Department’s Central District, evoked Disney World in describing the type of attraction the market could become for locals and outside visitors.

Creating this type of environment is a multifaceted process, but it will perhaps be most defined by the vendors that inhabit the space.

“This is one of the most diverse communities in Baltimore City,” says Kristen Mitchell, executive director of Market Center Merchants Association, a nonprofit that promotes commerce and works to attract businesses in a 27-block area around Lexington Market. “We want to make sure that the vendors reflect that diversity.”

The vendor selection process will begin in March with two rounds of applications to fill the 60 permanent slots available. Seawall has said that it will place an emphasis on highlighting businesses run by women and those from African American and immigrant communities. Slater Harrington adds there will be three different types of vendors, including those who offer fresh food and produce, prepared food stalls, and specialty retail. Applications are open to anyone interested, and current vendors still in operation will have the opportunity to opt-in.

“Existing vendors love the market, and they’re ready for us to invest in them,” Slater Harrington says. “They’ve been with the market in its ups and downs—everything that we’re creating for the new market, we’re creating as a support system for those existing businesses so they can transition and move into the market.”

From the merchants’ perspective, Robert Thomas, executive director for Baltimore Public Markets, says that vendors are most concerned about the timeline moving forward and whether or not they will be accepted into the new building once it’s complete.

“Change is not something that people look forward to,” Thomas says. “[Some merchants] have routines that they’ve been in for 15 or 20 or 30 years, and it’s worked for them. This is a different animal now. We’re really trying to manage the transition so that people land on their feet or at least know in which direction they’re headed.”

Thomas also says that the renovation and subsequent opening of the new market could be a natural marker for longtime vendors to step aside. “There is a natural attrition we expect to take place,” he says.

As for the immediate future, following the groundbreaking ceremony next week will be the next quarterly meeting centered around community programming and preserving the market’s history in three months.

“Baltimore as a city is at a decision point,” Slater Harrington says. “We’re deciding what type of city we’re going to be. Are we going to be a city with opportunity and access to some, or a city with opportunity and access for all? We’re thinking about that every day in every decision that we make with Lexington Market.”

U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight Committee and a powerful advocate for civil rights and Baltimore, died early Thursday at 68. According to his office, the 12-term Maryland congressman passed away at Gilchrist Hospice Care, a Johns Hopkins affiliate, due to complications concerning longstanding health challenges. Cummings had not gone back to work this week as Congress returned to Capitol Hill.

Over the past year, since the Democrats retook the House of Representatives following the 2018 midterm elections, Cummings had served a key and high-profile role as the myriad of Congressional investigations into President Donald Trump and his administration have unfolded.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, also a Baltimore native, said of Cummings’ unexpected death that “the people of Baltimore, the U.S. Congress, and America have lost a voice of unsurpassed moral clarity and truth.” She described herself as “personally devastated.”

“In the House, Elijah was our North Star,” Pelosi said. “He was a leader of towering character and integrity, whose stirring voice and steadfast values pushed the Congress and country to rise always to a higher purpose.”

“He worked until his last breath because he believed our democracy was the highest and best expression of our collective humanity and that our nation’s diversity was our promise, not our problem,” said Maya Rockeymore Cummings, the congressman’s wife and chair of the Maryland Democratic Party, in a statement.

Cummings, whose district includes parts of Baltimore City, as well as Baltimore and Howard counties, had—along with the city itself—become a target for President Trump’s vitriol earlier this summer. Cummings addressed Trump directly, describing his work ethic and mission as an elected official.

“Mr. President, I go home to my district daily,” Cummings wrote. “Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors. It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the executive branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents.”

In 2015, after the uprising and riot in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody, Cummings was in the streets day and night, playing a key role in diffusing tensions between protestors and police during the week of subsequent curfews.

“With the passing of U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, the city of Baltimore, our country, and people throughout the world have lost a powerful voice and one of the strongest and most gifted crusaders for social justice,” Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young said in a statement Thursday morning. “Rep. Cummings, the son of sharecroppers whose ancestors were slaves, wasn’t afraid to use his considerable intellect, booming voice, and poetic oratory to speak out against brutal dictators bent on oppression, unscrupulous business executives who took advantage of unsuspecting customers, or even a U.S. President. He was, put simply, a man of God who never forgot his duty to fight for the rights and dignity of the marginalized and often forgotten.”

Cummings first rose to national prominence five years ago, after Rep. Darrell Issa, then the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, cut off Cummings’ microphone during a key hearing. As Baltimoreans already knew and the country soon learned, Cummings remained a man who wore his heart on his sleeve.

“It’s not just my voice that was being shut down,” Cummings said at the time, maintaining his composure while passionately trying to make his case. “Remember what I said: ‘I represent, we represent, over 700,000 people.’ What about our voice? ‘Shut it down [Issa said].’ That’s not the Democratic way.”

Raised with six brothers and sisters in South Baltimore’s historically black Sharp-Leadenhall neighborhood, Cummings attended a segregated elementary school and was among the first children to integrate the Riverside Park swimming pool in the summer of 1962. The son of former South Carolina sharecroppers, Cummings was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1982—still on the heels of the civil rights movement and several years before Kurt Schmoke was became the first elected black mayor of Baltimore.

“Of the many things I learned from my father—and neither he nor my mother completed elementary school because they went to work in the fields—was to treat everyone with equal respect and not to speak or act out of anger,” Cummings told us in a 2014 Baltimore profile. “Because when you do, the person only hears your tone, they don’t get the message.

“And,” Cummings added, tapping a finger to the table for emphasis, “you’ll lose sight of the bigger picture. You’ll get so caught up in who you are fighting, you’ll forget what you are fighting for—and it’s the ‘what’ that is important.”

University of Maryland Carey School of Law professor Larry Gibson, Schmoke’s former campaign manager, noted in the same story that Cummings’ rise in congressional stature followed in the footsteps of a number of local African-American leaders who made significant contributions to the city, state, and country. “… look at who held that congressional seat before him—Parren Mitchell and Kweisi Mfume. All became powerhouses in Congress.”

Governor Larry Hogan described Cummings as “a fierce advocate for civil rights and for Maryland for more than three decades.”

“Congressman Cummings leaves behind an incredible legacy of fighting for Baltimore City and working to improve people’s lives,” Hogan said in a statement. “He was a passionate and dedicated public servant whose countless contributions made our state and our country better.”

Cummings was born on January 18, 1951 and was a distinguished student at City College High School, where he graduated in 1969. At Howard University, he majored in political science, served as class president, and became a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society.

He graduated from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1976 and practiced law before succeeding Lena Lee in the state House of Delegates. He often said her encouragement and support was crucial in launching his political career. In the General Assembly, where he served for 14 years, Cummings became the first African American in Maryland history to be named Speaker Pro Tem.

Among other efforts, up until the time of his death, Cummings also served on the U.S. Naval Academy Board of Visitors, the Morgan State University Board of Regents, the University of Maryland School of Law Board of Advisors, and the SEED School of Maryland Board of Directors.

To fill the Cummings’ seat, by law, Hogan will soon call a special primary election and a special general election will be held to fill the vacancy, according to reporting from The Baltimore Sun. Hogan’s spokesman, Mike Ricci, said Thursday morning that it wasn’t clear yet when the special election would take place.

City Council President Brandon Scott announced his 2020 bid for mayor Friday in the Park Heights neighborhood where he grew up, making an urgent case for top-to-bottom change in city government.

Scott, who said he was “tired of seeing the tears of young people who’d lost their classmates” to gun violence, was introduced by Cease Fire founder Erricka Bridgeford. “We must stop the bleeding and address the root causes of gun violence,” the 35-year-old Scott told those gathered. “Baltimore needs a mayor invested in the people of this city, not the status quo.”

In his 10-minute address, Scott reiterated recent proposals and pledges to bring professionalism to city government. “Every agency will be held to performance measures,” Scott said. “There will be a focus on resolving 311 issues.”

By declaring his candidacy, Scott became first elected leader to make a formal entry into the race, which many observers predict will eventually come down to a two-person generational battle between the council president and Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young, who has given indications he will run, but has not yet declared his intention to seek Baltimore’s highest office next year.

Young, the former council president, became Baltimore’s 51st mayor following former Mayor Catherine Pugh’s resignation earlier this year when she came under fire—and investigation—after receiving more than $800,000 in questionable deals from her Healthy Holly children’s book series. Young had tried to get the council to name Councilwoman Sharon Middleton as his council president successor, but Scott outmaneuvered her for the necessary votes. Young and Scott have been viewed as potential 2020 mayoral rivals ever since with occasional tensions spilling out in public view.

Former Mayor Sheila Dixon, former Baltimore Police Department spokesman T.J. Smith, state Sen. Jill Carter, state Sen. Mary Washington, and state Del. Nick Mosby are said to be considering a bid for mayor as well. Former Democratic candidate for governor, Ben Jealous, recently told the Baltimore Sun he has ruled out a run for mayor, but is considering running for state’s highest office again. Twelve candidates, none currently elected officials, including four Republicans, have declared themselves candidates for mayor with the State Board of Elections.

First elected at 27, Scott, a subject in last year’s well-received documentary Charm City, was one of the youngest candidates ever elected to citywide office. After growing up in Park Heights, he graduated from Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School and then studied political science and graduated from St. Mary’s College in Southern Maryland. He got his start in politics as a liaison in the office of then-City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

He previously served as chair of the council’s high-profile Public Safety Committee and co-founded the anti-violence group 300 Men March. He has also served as a member of the Budget and Appropriations and Judiciary and Legislative Investigations committees.

Earlier this summer, Scott unveiled a detailed, 29-page legislative and policy proposal highlighting his vision for improving city government, making communities safer, investing in youth, and bringing an equitable framework to governance. He essentially announced his bid with the release of a campaign video earlier this week.

If elected, Scott would be significantly younger than the average U.S. mayor—56, according to a recent study. But the ambitious Scott would be the same age as Martin O’Malley, another ambitious former councilman, when O’Malley ran for mayor and actually possesses several more years of elected experience.

“Brandon is hard-working, there’s no doubt about that, he’s smart, and capable,” former 1st District City Councilman James Kraft, told Baltimore this spring, adding he was not making an endorsement, but expressed confidence in his former colleague’s ability to handle the city’s top job. “He’d also surround himself with smart, good people.”

In an unprecedented verbal assault on the citizens of an American city by a modern U.S. president, Donald Trump called Baltimore “a disgusting, rat and rodent-infested mess,” and the “Worst in the USA,” adding “no human being would want to live there.”

Lashing out in a tweetstorm, first on Saturday—then doubling down Sunday—Trump added the nation’s 29th largest city, Rep. Elijah Cummings, and Maryland’s 7th Congressional District to his growing list of black and brown targets. By Sunday afternoon, Trump was referring to Rep. Cummings, one of the most respected members of Congress and the son of sharecroppers who grew up defending himself against racist bullies who tried to stop the integration of the Riverside Park swimming pool, as “racist Elijah Cummings.”

Baltimoreans, in turn, fired back all over social media, standing up for their beloved city against the president’s vitriol and racist-tinged attacks by posting photos of Charm City—from Artscape, Fort McHenry, and the Inner Harbor to stoop parties, crab feasts, Patterson Park, and the Gwynn Falls. They also highlighted figures like Divine and Gervonta Davis, who, by coincidence, successfully retained his world super featherweight title Saturday night before a packed house at the Royal Farms Arena.

By Saturday evening #WeAreBaltimore was trending across Twitter.

Perhaps no one responded more poignantly than Victor Blackwell, weekend host of CNN Saturday and a Baltimore native, who quickly, and correctly, put the president in his place.

“You know who did [live in Baltimore], Mr. President? I did,” Blackwell said, struggling at times to hold his emotions in check. “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.”

In particular, Blackwell highlighted Trump’s use of the word “infested” in reference to majority-black Baltimore—a term of art the president often deploys when talking about people of color—whether in regard to Mexican and Central American migrants and asylum seekers, the Ebola-crisis in Africa, or certain female members of Congress.

“’Infested—that’s usually reserved for references to rodents and insects, but we’ve seen the president invoke infestation to criticize lawmakers before,” Blackwell said to viewers. “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.”

Blackwell noted that Trump had also previously described longtime civil rights activist—and congressman—John Lewis’ Atlanta district as “crime infested.”

John Waters, never one to shrink from a fight—or cover up the city’s challenges—responded to Trump by saying: “Give me the rats and roaches of Baltimore any day over the lies and racism of your Washington, Mr. Trump. Come on over to that neighborhood and see if you have the nerve to say it in person!”

David Simon, not one to pull punches, either, reacted in similar style: “There’s a block party today on my southside street. This is a city of good Americans who deserve more than a grifting, hollow and self-absorbed failure of a man as their president. @realDonaldTrump is a permanent stain on our land.”

Trump’s twitter fire at Baltimore residents apparently was prompted by a “Fox & Friends” segment Saturday morning that was critical of Baltimore. That segment came on the heels of Cummings’ tough questioning of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan during a hearing on conditions and child separations at U.S. border facilities.

Saturday afternoon, Baltimore leaders and elected officials gathered at City Hall to formally condemn Trump and his remarks.

“It’s completely unacceptable for the political leader of our country to denigrate a vibrant American City like Baltimore, and to viciously attack U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings, a patriot and a hero,” Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young said in a prepared statement. “Mr. Trump’s rhetoric is hurtful and dangerous to the people he’s sworn to represent. As the Mayor of Baltimore, I won’t stand for anyone, not even the alleged Leader of the Free World, attacking our great City or our representative to Congress. Mr. Trump, you are a disappointment to the people of Baltimore, our country, and to the world.”

Brian Stelter, host of CNN’s Reliable Sources and a Maryland native and Towson University alum, pointed to the factual errors in the president’s tweets on his Sunday show. He described them as “petty” and “a distraction” from other important issues as well as “racist and ridiculous stereotyping of a part of the country [which] is damaging to the country as a whole and that must be covered that way.”

Lest anyone mistake Trump’s rhetoric for actual political dialogue, this is what Red Maryland, the state’s conservative blog, had to say:

“First off, typical of his tweets, President Trump shot his mouth off before his brain was loaded. The problems with his tweet are extensive, but it boils down to two big problems.

• The 7th Congressional District includes only half of Baltimore City. Large chunks of the district are in Baltimore County and Howard County. Some of Maryland’s most affluent areas i.e. Columbia, Clarksville, and parts of horse country are part of the district; and,
• There is a racial component of the implication is too obvious to miss.”

Trump, on Sunday, continued his attacks on Baltimore and Cummings, who chairs the powerful House Oversight Committee, tweeting “. . . Congressman Elijah Cummings has done a very poor job for his district and the City of Baltimore. Just take a look, the facts speak far louder than words!”

For good measure, Trump subsequently went after the Baltimore-born Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and her district, also describing it as“failing badly.” Later, Trump said he was, “Waiting for Nancy and Elijah to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. President!’ for the declining unemployment numbers among African-Americans nationally, a trend, of course, that had been established, along with overall unemployment decline, under the Obama Administration.

Cummings addressed Trump on Twitter directly, describing his work ethic and mission as an elected official, which one can only assume will be completely lost on the president.

“Mr. President, I go home to my district daily,” Cummings wrote. “Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors. It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents.”

On Thursday afternoon, Mayor Catherine Pugh’s private lawyer Steve Silverman held a press conference at his downtown office announcing the mayor’s resignation, effective immediately.

“In the best interest of the people and the government of the Mayor and City of Baltimore, I am writing to attest that, effective immediately, I hereby resign from the Office of Mayor, to which I was duly elected on November 8, 2016,” read Pugh’s resignation letter. “I am confident that I have left the City in capable hands for the duration of the term to which I was elected.”

Pugh, who has not been seen in public in weeks while on paid sick leave following a bout of pneumonia, did not attend the press conference. A short letter from Pugh accompanying her resignation, which Silverman read, said, “I am sorry for the harm that I have caused to the image of the city of Baltimore and the credibility of the Office of the Mayor. Baltimore deserves a mayor who can move our great city forward.”

Pugh’s resignation in the wake of her Healthy Holly children’s book scandal and surrounding criminal investigations has been anticipated for weeks.

Ex Officio Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young will officially serve as Baltimore’s 51st mayor until the general election in November 2020. Young, elevated from his position as president of the City Council, is in Detroit for a conference through this weekend.

Silverman did not take any questions from the media.

Young released a statement which said he had been informed of Pugh’s decision at 3:35 p.m. Thursday.

“Although I understand that this ordeal has caused real pain for many Baltimoreans, I promise that we will emerge from it more committed than ever to building a stronger Baltimore,” Young wrote. “Charm City is wonderful and is full of resilient people who are working hard every day to move our City forward.”

U.S Rep. Elijah Cummings, whose endorsement in 2016 helped key Pugh’s close Democratic primary win, “commended” Pugh “for making this decision to put our City first.” Cummings also expressed support for Young in a statement. “I have every confidence in the leadership of Mayor Young, and I ask that you join me in giving him our full support,” Cummings said. “Over the past month he has demonstrated his strong commitment to Baltimore and his ability to direct the City along the right path.

City Councilman Brandon Scott, who expected to run for mayor in 2020, described resignation as “a day of relief and accountability for Baltimore.”

Pugh, who has been embroiled in scandal since The Sun broke the story that the University of Maryland Medical System, upon whose board she sat, authorized $500,000 in purchases of her self-published Healthy Holly children’s book series.

The mayor’s book deals, made with companies with business before either the city or state of Maryland, began when she was a state senator. To date, it’s been alleged that $800,000 from sales has been funneled through her Health Holly limited liability company.

Following the charges of corruption and self-dealing, the entire 14-member City Council—save for Young—Gov. Larry Hogan, Baltimore City’s contingent of state delegates, Comptroller Peter Franchot, and the Greater Baltimore Committee called for Pugh’s resignation.

Supporters held a prayer vigil for Pugh on Wednesday evening outside of her Ashburton home which, just a week ago, the FBI raided during a federal investigation—along with another home owned by the former mayor, City Hall, and a nonprofit once led by Pugh.

City state Del. Robbyn Lewis, noting Pugh campaign aide Gary Brown pled guilty to two election law violations, but was nonetheless was awarded a staff position in her administration, called Pugh’s actions and tenure “a betrayal of the citizens of Baltimore.”

Mayor Catherine Pugh’s personal attorney is expected to announce her resignation at a press conference this afternoon.

After visiting Pugh at her Ashburton home Wednesday, Steve Silverman, the mayor’s lawyer, said he intended to hold a press conference Thursday afternoon at his downtown office. “At that time, I will be in a position to tell you her intentions are moving forward,” Silverman told reporters gathered outside Pugh’s home yesterday.

The scandal-plagued mayor, elected to her first term in 2016, has been on paid sick leave since April 1 following a bout of pneumonia.

The Baltimore Sun reported later Wednesday evening that City Solicitor Andre Davis had drafted a resignation letter for Pugh and handed it to Silverman before the lawyer visited with the mayor. Also Wednesday, roughly two dozen people gathered in front of Pugh’s home for a prayer vigil for the 69-year-old mayor.

Pugh, who has been embroiled in scandal since The Sun broke the story that the University of Maryland Medical System, upon whose board she sat, authorized $500,000 in purchases of her self-published Healthy Holly children’s book series.

FBI and criminal-division IRS agents raided Pugh’s Ashburton residence, another home owned by the mayor, City Hall, and a nonprofit once led by Pugh last Thursday morning. The mayor is also under investigation by the state prosecutor’s office.

The mayor’s book deals, made with companies with business before either the city or state of Maryland, began when she was a state senator. To date, it’s been alleged that $800,000 from sales has been funneled through her Health Holly limited liability company. In the wake of the charges of corruption and self-dealing, the entire 14-member City Council—save Council President Jack Young, the acting mayor in Pugh’s absence—Gov. Larry Hogan, Baltimore City’s contingent of state delegates, Comptroller Peter Franchot, and the Greater Baltimore Committee have called for Pugh’s resignation.

Three Pugh aides—Gary Brown Jr., Poetri Deal, and Afra Vance-White —have been fired by Young since Pugh took leave. Two of the mayor’s key staff, Karen Stokes, the city’s top lobbyist, and chief of staff Bruce Williams, are also no longer employed.

Since the revelations of Pugh’s book deals, there has been discussion among the city’s leaders about amending the Baltimore’s charter and the state constitution to enable the removal of a sitting mayor. As it stands, only a criminal conviction can trigger a Baltimore mayor’s removal from office.

A proposed charter amendment sponsored by District 8 Councilman Kristerfer Burnett last week would enable a three-fourths majority vote of the city council—after an investigation—to remove a sitting mayor. If passed by the council, the amendment would go on the ballot in November 2020 and need to be approved by voters.

The city council is also looking at other legislation that would shift some of the balance of power from Baltimore’s strong-mayor system to the council. Fourth District Councilman Bill Henry is sponsoring a charter amendment that would lower the majority of council members necessary to override a mayor’s veto from four-fifths to two-thirds. The council is also considering a third charter amendment that would provide members more authority in the city budget process.

1st District: Zeke Cohen
A 30-year-old educator with a master’s degree in public policy from Johns Hopkins University, Cohen founded The Intersection, a nonprofit “dedicated to shifting expectations for Baltimore’s young people,” with two other city social studies teachers in 2011. Cohen is married and lives in Canton.

3rd District: Ryan Dorsey
A 34-year-old arts and community activist, and lifelong resident of the 3rd District resident, Dorsey earned a degree in music composition from the Peabody Conservatory. A Mayfield resident, he has worked full-time as a project manager at Soundscape, a local, third-generation, family-run audio and visual business.

8th District: Kristerfer Burnett
An social justice advocate with community, labor, and affordable housing organizing experience, Burnett is a lifelong Baltimorean with master’s degree in public policy from UMBC. Burnett is married and Edmondson Village resident.

12th District: Robert Stokes Jr.
A 58-year-old with six years of experience as an assistant to former 12th District City Councilman Carl Stokes (no relation), Stokes Jr. received his boss’s endorsement and won a wide-open primary. Stokes has a long history in local politics, working as community representative under former Mayor Kurt Schmoke and assistant to former City Councilman president Lawrence Bell. He studied at Morgan State University and is an Oliver resident.

5th District: Isaac Schleifer
A 27-year-old software entrepreneur, Schleifer won an upset victory in a contentious primary to become the first Orthodox Jewish City Councilman in decades. Schleifer, who goes by “Yitzi,” is a graduate of the University of Baltimore Merrick School for Business and a married father and Cheswolde resident.

7th District: Leon Pinkett III
An assistant pastor and project manager for the City of Baltimore, Pinkett has significant political experience, serving as chief of staff for former City Councilman Keiffer Mitchell Jr., with a background in economic and neighborhood development. He is a married father of two and resident of Reservoir Hill.

9th District: John Bullock
A political science professor at Towson University, Bullock also recently served as executive director of the Downtown Baltimore Family Alliance. Previously, he worked as planner in District of Columbia’s city government. A married father of two young sons, Bullock lives in Union Square.

13th District: Shannon Sneed
A recruitment specialist for a mentoring agency, Sneed, who lost a 2011 bid for her district’s City Council seat by 43 votes in 2011, has served as a board member of two local nonprofits, Belair Edison Neighborhoods and Banner Neighborhoods. She is a graduate of Morgan State University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, a new mother, and lives in Ellwood Park with her husband.

Returning City Council Members

President: Bernard “Jack” Young

2nd District: Brandon Scott

4th District: Bill Henry

6th District: Sharon Green Middleton

10th District: Edward Reisinger

11th District: Eric Costello