Elijah Cummings scares off would-be intruder at his home

Reactions are swift after Trump calls Baltimore "rodent infested"

Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings thwarted an attempted break-in at his home in the middle of the night last weekend, he said Friday. The 68-year-old congressman, who was home at the time, said that he scared off the early-morning intruder by yelling.

"An individual attempted to gain entry into my residence at approximately 3:40 AM on Saturday, July 27. I was notified of the intrusion by my security system, and I scared the intruder away by yelling before the person gained entry into the residential portion of the house," Cummings said in a statement. "I thank the Baltimore Police Department for their response and ask that all further inquiries be directed to them."

Friday morning, the president tweeted about the reports of a break-in at Cummings home. "Really bad news! The Baltimore house of Elijah Cummings was robbed," he wrote. "Too bad!"

Cummings, according to public records, has an apartment in the Druid Hill neighborhood of Baltimore. The break-in took place hours before President Trump's first tweet Saturday morning attacking Cummings and the district he represents.

He called Cummings' district, which includes large parts of downtown Baltimore and stretches to the Maryland suburbs, a "rat and rodent infested mess" and has sustained those attacks in the days since, at one point accusing Cummings of being a "racist" himself.

Cummings serves as chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee and has been one of the president's most strident critics in Congress, overseeing sweeping investigations into his administration and business practices.

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