Senior Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings, who was at the center of the Trump impeachment inquiry, died early Thursday at the age of 68, US media reported. The veteran Baltimore representative passed away at Johns Hopkins Hospital "due to complications concerning longstanding health challenges," reports said, quoting a statement from his office. As chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Cummings was at the center of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump and had clashed with him.

In July, the president described Baltimore as a "rat and rodent infested mess" unfit for humans and blamed it on Cummings, an African-American Democrat who has represented much of the majority-black city in Congress since 1996.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019