August 2, 2019

Trump Appears to Mock Cummings Over Reported Burglary at Baltimore Home

“Too bad!” the president, who had spent days attacking Cummings, tweeted.

Douglas Christian/ZUMA

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Days after picking a public fight with Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), President Donald Trump appeared to mock Cummings on Twitter following reports that the congressman’s Baltimore home had been burglarized.

The tweet comes nearly a week after the president first attacked Cummings, a senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and called the majority-African American district he represents a “rodent-infested mess.” Despite attracting fierce condemnation for launching another racist attack on a Democratic lawmaker of color, Trump has continued pummeling Cummings every day since.

On Friday, Trump tweeted that the reported burglary was “really bad news” and “too bad.” His curt message was widely interpreted as a mocking response to the burglary reports. The tweet signaled that the president, who attacked Cummings and other lawmakers of color at a Thursday rally in Ohio without using their names, had no intention of stopping his assault on minority members of Congress he perceives as his political enemies.

On Fox & Friends, Trump’s favorite morning news show, the hosts appeared to point to the reported break-in as a justification for Trump’s ongoing vilification of Cummings’ district. “That’s how bad the neighborhood is,” Brian Kilmeade said. 

“For those who want to label the president’s remarks racially tinged, he was commenting on the city and the lawmakers—nothing to do with the color of his skin,” he added.

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