Trump Lambasts Cummings Over ‘Filthy’ District in Murder-Riddled Baltimore

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 12, 2017. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo

President Donald Trump called one of the top-ranking Congressional Democrats a “brutal bully” early July 27 before lamenting the conditions in the representative’s home district.

Trump said that Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) “has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous.”

“His district is considered the Worst in the USA,” Trump added.

Cummings, 68, has been in office since 1996. He represents Maryland’s 7th Congressional District. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 1,191 deaths and 4,328 gun incidents in the district since 2014. Baltimore as a whole has one of the highest murder rates in the nation even as its population has decreased considerably since 1970.

Patrick Sharkey, a sociologist at New York University, described Baltimore as a place “where there is an urgent need to make sure that neighborhoods do not continue to fall apart and the population doesn’t give up on the city,” reported The Associated Press in a story about there being 343 killings in 2017, bringing the homicide rate to about 56 per 100,000 people, the highest ever.

The number of murders declined to 309 in 2018, with more than half of the victims being shot in the head, reported The Baltimore Sun. As of July 11, there were 171 murders in the city this year, the Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police said. There was also an increase in non-fatal shootings.

The group used the hashtag “City in Crisis” in a Twitter post about the issue.

Trump’s criticism of Cummings also came after shocking video footage circulated widely online showing a Baltimore civilian employee being beaten and robbed in broad daylight.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives were helping Baltimore police with the case.

“That is extremely shocking and look at where it happened,” said Commissioner Michael Harrison.

“It’s extremely shocking to the conscience, extremely worrisome and troublesome and disturbing and, yes, we are deploying all of our resources in the most aggressive way—but not abusive—to be in as many places as we can to deter it,” Harrison said.

Cummings, one of the top Democrats in the House of Representatives, has been a harsh critic of Trump, focusing on the president’s border policies and his alleged collusion with Russia, which special counsel Robert Mueller’s team found it could not establish.

At a press conference this week, Cummings appeared using a walker to move around. It wasn’t clear which health issues prompted the device.

The president added two other missives later Saturday morning.

“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,” he wrote in one.

Later, he added: “Why is so much money sent to the Elijah Cummings district when it is considered the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States. No human being would want to live there. Where is all this money going? How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!”

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the political affiliation of Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). The Epoch Times regrets the error.