While the local Fox News affiliate in Baltimore was reporting on President Trump’s tweets claiming the city is overrun with rats, one of the rodents scurried by in the live shot.
The station’s camera was aimed at a pile of garbage when the rat popped out and ran across before going around a wall.
Fox 45 reported they were in a neighborhood that is a part of Rep. Elijah Cummings’ district.
Trump has blasted Cummings over the conditions and crime rates in his district, saying he has failed as a congressman.
….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
Baltimore’s numbers are the worst in the United States on Crime and the Economy. Billions of dollars have been pumped in over the years, but to no avail. The money was stolen or wasted. Ask Elijah Cummings where it went. He should investigate himself with his Oversight Committee!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2019
Trump has been branded as racist for his numerous tweets on the conditions in Baltimore, even prompting city native and CNN anchor Victor Blackwell to slam him during his show on Saturday.
“Donald Trump has tweeted more than 43,000 times. He’s insulted thousands of people, many different types of people,” he said. “But when he tweets about infestation, it’s about black and brown people.
“The president says about Congressman Cummings’ district that ‘no human would want to live there,'” Blackwell added as he began to tear up, “You know who did Mr. President? I did. From the day I was brought home from the hospital to the day I left for college, and a lot of people I care about still do. There are challenges, no doubt. But people are proud of their community.”
Cummings responded to Trump on Saturday, saying he goes home to his district every day.
Just yesterday, I held a hearing on the skyrocketing prices of prescription drugs and the financial hardships that families across the nation, and in Baltimore, are facing.
— Elijah E. Cummings (@RepCummings) July 27, 2019
The Baltimore Sun reported that Washington D.C. has more rats, though it conceded: “But some observers noted that Baltimore does indeed struggle with rats …While Baltimore’s rat population seems to have decreased in recent years, experts say the neighborhoods struggling with rodents are often victims of poverty, racist housing policies and problematic urban planning.”
[Also read: Baltimore Sun rebukes Trump: ‘Better to have a few rats than to be one’]
