A rat appeared during a live shot of a broadcast from Baltimore on Monday, July 29 as a reporter talked about her experience speaking to people in the area and what she saw.
Maxine Streicher of Fox 45 went to the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood to report on the conditions there. During one part of her segment, a rat ran through as the camera rolled.
The neighborhood is part of Rep. Elijah Cummings’s (D-Md.) district, Congressional District 7.
Some said the rat “photobombed” Streicher, though she wasn’t in front of the camera when the rodent appeared. The camera at the time was slowly panning over piles of trash in what appeared to be an alley.
A rat runs through a FOX45 Baltimore Reporter’s live shot during a story on President Trump’s tweet Baltimore is rat infestedhttps://t.co/s60inZ6TtK pic.twitter.com/R4LFxsPWeK
— FOX Baltimore (@FOXBaltimore) July 29, 2019
President Donald Trump over the weekend said that Cummings’s 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,” Trump added.
After Democratic leaders attacked him for criticizing Cummings, Trump said that his comments were not racist.
“There is nothing racist in stating plainly what most people already know, that Elijah Cummings has done a terrible job for the people of his district, and of Baltimore itself. Dems always play the race card when they are unable to win with facts. Shame!” he wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
He shared a video shot by Republican strategist Kimberly Klacik showing trash and abandoned homes and another where a resident said Trump’s comments were correct.
More trash. More concerned residents. People live in the home with the silver van. This is @RepCummings district. This has nothing to do with race. Let us all pray the city removes the trash & install cameras to catch the individuals dumping on the property. #WestBaltimore pic.twitter.com/CCaRH5c0aO
— Kimberly Klacik (@kimKBaltimore) July 27, 2019
.@RepCummings — your district! https://t.co/JV4SF8ykCT
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2019
On Monday, Trump said the billions of dollars sent to Baltimore were either “stolen or wasted,” claiming Cummings might know what happened to the funds.
According to the Orkin pest company, Baltimore topped its latest Bed Bug Cities list and was ninth on its list of Rattiest Cities.
Rodents are a major issue that can cause a slew of problems including structural damage and fires, Orkin said in the rankings announcement.
“Aside from causing structural damage, rodents can carry hundreds of pathogens that can transmit various diseases and dangerous parasites,” Chelle Hartzer, an Orkin entomologist, said in a statement. “Additionally, they constantly leave behind droplets of urine as they travel each day. These droppings can contribute to asthma and allergic reactions, especially in children.”
FLASHBACK: Fox 45 news report in September 2018 with Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh:
Mayor Pugh:
“What the hell? We should just take all this shit down.”
“Whoa, you can smell the rats.” pic.twitter.com/BqhsL2Dsx7
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) July 28, 2019
Catherine Pugh, who resigned as mayor of Baltimore earlier this year, was filmed walking through a neighborhood in September 2018 and saying “you can smell the rats.”
“Whew, Jesus. Oh, my God, you can smell the dead animals,” she added.
“Rat Film,” a documentary about the city’s rat problem, aired last year, reported the Baltimore Sun.
