'The Wire' creator David Simon calls Trump a 'racist moron' over Baltimore attacks

NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 07:  Producer David Simon arrives at the premiere of HBO's "The Wire" on September 7, 2006 in New York City.  (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)
David Simon hit out at Trump over his comments about Rep. Elijah Cummings and Baltimore, prompting a POTUS supporter to ask if he'd seen The Wire — the show he created. (Photo: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)

David Simon, the author and former journalist best known for creating the acclaimed HBO series The Wire, which was set in Baltimore, was among those coming to the defense of the city and Rep. Elijah Cummings following a blistering attack by Donald Trump. Trump supporters then pushed back against Simon, with one — clearly unaware of the TV producer’s background – firing back, “Have you watched The Wire, sir?”

Simon — whose screen credits also include Homicide: Life on the Streets, The Corner, Treme and The Deuce — called Trump an “empty-suit, race-hating fraud” “simplistic, racist moron” after the president attacked Cummings by branding his Baltimore district a “disgusting, rat- and rodent infested mess.”

While The Wire depicted crime in Baltimore in gritty detail, Simon insisted that Trump had no grasp of the situation there and cited the “national neglect” and big-picture issues affecting the city.

“The president is ‘literally’ a simplistic, racist moron,” he told a critic who accused him of calling Baltimore a “s***hole.” “I am ‘literally’ the guy writing stuff about the last century of U.S. policy, about the drug war and mass incarceration, about Brown v. [Board of Education] and white flight, about all of modern U.S. history to which your kind stays mute.”

NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 14:  Dominic West, Creator and Executive Producer David Simon, Guest, Wendell Pierce and Sonja Sohn arrive at Chelsea West Theaters on West 23rd St. for the premiere of "The Wire" on September 14, 2004 in New York City. (Photo by Scott Wintrow/Getty Images)
Simon with Wire stars Dominic West, Wendell Pierce and Sonja Sohn in 2004. (Photo: Scott Wintrow/Getty Images)

Another critic defended Trump by accusing Cummings — who took part in last week’s Mueller hearing — of badmouthing the president.

“You also act like Baltimore is doing great?” he added. “Have you watched The Wire, sir?”

Naturally, Twitter was ready to pounce.

After apparently claiming that he was being sarcastic by asking Simon if he’d seen The Wire, the commenter appears to have deleted the tweet and made his tweets protected.

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