Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) accused President Trump of promoting "textbook racism" on Saturday following his pardon of controversial former Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Cummings was invoking comments that Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanKenosha will be a good bellwether in 2020 At indoor rally, Pence says election runs through Wisconsin Juan Williams: Breaking down the debates MORE (R-Wis.) made last year when he said that then-candidate Trump criticizing a federal judge because of his ethnicity was the "textbook definition of racist comments."

"Over & over again, #POTUS has promoted what @SpeakerRyan once called 'textbook racism' while exhibiting contempt for the rule of law," Cummings tweeted Saturday, sharing a report about the Arpaio pardon.

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"#POTUS claims that he wants to unite the country and fight against racism, yet his own words and actions show the opposite," Cummings continued.

"He has followed up on his abhorrent statements about #Charlottesville by pardoning a racist cop for his crimes against minorities."

He has now followed up his abhorrent statements about #Charlottesville by pardoning a racist cop for his crimes against minorities. — Elijah E. Cummings (@RepCummings) August 26, 2017

President Trump is sending a message with these words and his actions, and it is one of hate and divisiveness rather than hope and unity. — Elijah E. Cummings (@RepCummings) August 26, 2017

Arpaio, who was facing jail time for his arrests of immigrants in contempt of a court order, has been accused of racial profiling and poor treatment of immigrants in his custody.

Cummings connected Trump's pardon of the "racist cop" with his comments in response to a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., earlier this month that left one dead and dozens other injured.

Trump's initial failure to denounce the white supremacist groups involved in the rally sparked racial tensions and accusations that the president had emboldened such groups.

"President Trump is sending a message with these words and his actions, and it is one of hate and divisiveness rather than hope and unity," Cummings wrote Saturday.