The same day President Donald Trump was criticized for slamming Baltimore as “dangerous” in response to comments from Rep. Elijah Cummings, the Maryland Democrat’s home was burglarized, according to police.
Authorities told CBS affiliate WJZ they’re investigating a break in that occurred in the early morning at the Democrat lawmaker’s home.
Police are not certain whether any property was taken from Cummings’ residence, WJZ reported. The burglary occurred on Saturday, just hours before Trump blasted the chair of the Committee on Oversight and Reform for criticizing conditions border patrol agents.
Trump tweeted that Cummings’ district “is FAR WORSE and more dangerous” than the U.S.-Mexico border.
….As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cumming 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 & filthy place
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2019
“His district is considered the Worst in the USA,” the president added.
Cummings fired back later in the day with a tweet-storm of his own.
“Mr. President, I go home to my district daily. Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors,” he said. “It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents.”
According to FBI statistics, Baltimore, with 2,027, had the third-most incidents of violent crime per 100,000 residents in 2017.
The reaction to Trump’s comments about Elijah Cummings and Baltimore
Liberals– including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, MSNBC host Joy Reid and the Maryland chapter of the NAACP – swiftly condemned the president as racist for his remarks.
.@RepCummings is a champion in the Congress and the country for civil rights and economic justice, a beloved leader in Baltimore, and deeply valued colleague. We all reject racist attacks against him and support his steadfast leadership. #ElijahCummingsIsAPatriot https://t.co/2LG8AuQrHh
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) July 27, 2019
.“Rep. Cummings is a champion in the Congress and the country for civil rights and economic justice, a beloved leader in Baltimore, and deeply valued colleague,” Pelosi tweeted on Saturday. “We all reject racist attacks against him and support his steadfast leadership.”
The same day, current Mayor Bernard C. Jack Young reacted to Trump by issuing a statement in which he called Baltimore a “vibrant American City.”
Conservatives and Trump’s supporters have argued that Trump is merely stating unpleasant but accurate truths about the city, pointing out that Democrats, liberals and even Baltimore’s former mayor have expressed similar sentiments in the past.
In a 2018 video, then-Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh echoed many of Trump’s sentiments. A Fox 45 segment broadcast last September shows Pugh, a black Democrat, touring an East Baltimore neighborhood with other city leaders.
“What the hell. We should just take all this shit down,” she can be heard saying of the surrounding slums. “Whoa, you can smell the rats. Whew, Jesus. Oh, my God, you can smell the dead animals.”
MORE: Trump Called ‘Racist’ for Slamming Baltimore ― Then Video Shows Black Mayor Agreeing With Him
In May, The New York Times Magazine ran a cover story headlined “The Tragedy of Baltimore,” which details how in the wake of the 2015 riots, the city descended into “nothing less than a failure of order and governance the likes of which few American cities have seen in years.”
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