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.