In the immediate aftermath of the left’s/media’s outrage over President Trump’s criticisms of Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD-7) and the inhumane conditions in some parts of his Congressional district, many conservatives pointed to similar remarks made by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in 2015.

Here’s what the Senator said at the time:

But just a few years ago, Sen. Bernie Sanders — a candidate seeking the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination — took his own shots at Baltimore, a struggling Northeast city grappling with high rates of violent crime, drug abuse, poverty and political corruption.

“Anyone who took the walk that we took around this neighborhood would not think you’re in a wealthy nation,” Sanders said during a visit to the city’s West Baltimore section in December 2015, the Baltimore Sun reported. “You would think that you were in a Third World country.”

The independent U.S. senator from Vermont also referred to Baltimore as “a community in which half of the people don’t have jobs.”

“We’re talking about a community in which there are hundreds of buildings that are uninhabitable,” he added, according to the Sun.

Watch:

Here’s Bernie Sanders in 2015 calling parts of Baltimore “uninhabitable” and a “third world country.”

With community leaders standing behind him. 🤷‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/E1lSnKvna3

— Andrew Clark (@AndrewHClark) July 29, 2019

He also tweeted about Baltimore in 2016:

Residents of Baltimore’s poorest boroughs have lifespans shorter than people living under dictatorship in North Korea. That is a disgrace.

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) May 5, 2016

Many conservatives wondered: If Trump’s comments had to be characterized as “racist”, why weren’t Bernie’s? Furthermore, why won’t the mainstream media ask him about them?

It’s a question that was echoed by GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on Tuesday prior to the Democratic debate:

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on Tuesday pressed CNN’s John Berman on why Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) hasn’t been confronted for once saying that parts of Baltimore resembled a “Third World country.”

“You have a great opportunity with your debate tonight to talk to Bernie Sanders about what he said about Baltimore. Was he racist? He was on CNN on Sunday and nobody asked him about his comments about Baltimore being a Third World country,” McDaniel said.

Watch her talk about this issue below:

RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel to CNN's Berman: "You have a great opportunity with your debate tonight to talk to Bernie Sanders about what he said about Baltimore. Was he racist? He was on CNN on Sunday & nobody asked him about his comments about Baltimore being a 3rd-world country." pic.twitter.com/WyfvxIoTMq

— The Hill (@thehill) July 30, 2019

To the surprise of no one anywhere, CNN did not ask Sanders about his Baltimore remarks at Tuesday night’s debate.

As Red State‘s Streiff wrote Saturday, in reality Sanders’s comments weren’t racist and Trump’s comments weren’t racist. They both accurately described the deplorable conditions that are an unfortunate reality for the Democrat-run city.

But because Trump is a Republican, which automatically = “racist” to the Democrat/MSM industrial complex, and because he’s not shy about clapping back when criticized no matter who is doing the criticizing, he’s the one who gets gratuitously slapped with the “racist” label. Because narratives and stuff.

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— Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter. –