Former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh — who resigned in May amid a corruption scandal — just last year decried the “rats” and “dead animals” that plague Baltimore’s worst neighborhoods.
While canvassing an East Baltimore neighborhood with city leaders, video footage captured by WBFF-TV showed Pugh looking upon endless vacant and run-down housing, the Baltimore Sun reported.
“What the hell? We should just take all this s**t down,” Pugh said.
“Woah, you can smell the rats,” she said. “Whew, Jesus.”
Later, while walking through one of the area’s most violent neighborhoods, Pugh said: “Oh my God, you can smell the dead animals.”
FLASHBACK: Fox 45 news report in September 2018 with Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh: Mayor Pugh: “What the hell?… https://t.co/lcAXMwbkj7
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest)1564345435.0
Pugh’s comments re-surfaced Sunday amid new controversy involving President Donald Trump, who over the weekend criticized Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and the disastrous conditions that define major areas of Baltimore, which are part of Cummings’ congressional district.
Trump, who specifically cited the “filthy” and “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess,” was widely condemned and accused of racism for criticizing Cummings’ seeming indifference toward his constituents.
However, not everyone disagreed with Trump, including the residents who live in the very neighborhoods that Cummings represents.
Indeed, even Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), while touring the area in 2015 during his campaign for president, compared the conditions of West Baltimore to that of a Third World country.
*story by The Blaze