Trump defends controversial tweet and says it wasn't supposed to be a 'wise guy' statement
President Donald Trump brushed off a rebuke from
former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley and said a controversial
tweet he made about a recent break-in at Democratic Rep. Elijah
Cummings' home was not intended to be a "wise guy" statement.
Cummings, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee and a frequent critic of Trump, said in a statement
that he scared away an "intruder" who "gained entry into the
residential portion" at his house in Baltimore, Maryland, on Saturday
morning.
Nearly a week later, Trump described the incident on Twitter as "really bad news" and said it was "too bad!"
Trump's tweet on Friday comes amid ratcheted
tensions with Democratic lawmakers, who criticized the president for his
inflammatory remarks about Baltimore's crime rate , connecting it with the city's long history of Democratic leadership.
Trump previously remarked to reporters that
the city's residents were "living in hell" and described it as
"disgusting, rat and rodent infested," prompting accusations that he
crossed the line and was being racist.
Haley, who resigned from her position as the US's ambassador to the UN in October, replied to Trump's tweet by calling it "so unnecessary."
Asked by reporters how he felt about Haley's rebuke, Trump brushed off her remarks.
"That's ok, I don't mind that. The tweet
itself was just really a repeat of what I heard over the news," Trump
said on Friday. "That was not really meant as a wise guy tweet."
Trump's comments did not placate some
Democrats. On Friday afternoon, Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland
characterized the president's behavior as "outrageous."
"This has been going on now for five or six
days," Cardin said during a CNN interview. "What the president's done is
so outrageous for the president of the United States. He should be the
president for all America, including the people of Baltimore."
"To make fun of someone trying to get into his
home ... you certainly know the president does things that disappoints
us all the time, but we always need to speak out because this is just
wrong and should have no place in American politics, and certainly not
from the White House," Cardin added.
Trump defends controversial tweet and says it wasn't supposed to be a 'wise guy' statement
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