House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) invited President Trump to take a tour of Baltimore with him during a discussion on Thursday at the National Press Club.
When asked by NPC President Jeff Ballou what more could be done for Baltimore, Cummings gave a vague response before inviting Trump to visit.
“Lots could be done. All the cutbacks with regard to, that would affect cities, have been significant. And you know what? I want President Trump to come to my district. I want him to — oh God I want him to come so bad,” he said.
Asked if he has invited the president, Cummings said, “No, I can’t get to him.” He asked media present at the discussion to “put that in your editorials.”
“I want him to come. I want him to come. I want him to come. And look at my entire city. I’ll ride with him for hours if he has to,” he said.
He said he wanted to bring Trump to the richest places in Baltimore County.
“I want him to go into Baltimore County, where the richest of the rich are. Then I want him to go to Howard County, where the richest of the rich are. And then I want him to see all the wonderful things that are happening,” he said.
He accused Trump of beating up on poor people, despite Trump criticizing Cummings and district’s conditions, not its citizens.
” You know, when you beat up on people who have had difficulties and challenges in their lives, it doesn’t help them. Nobody in this room would do that,” he said.
“There are many things I would talk to him about when he comes,” he said. “Again, we’re talking about results, we’re talking about results, then you all need to see when he comes. By the way, I want all you all to be there. Let me tell you something, Baltimore is a beautiful city.”
He acknowledged that his district had the “poorest of the poor.”
“I got to tell you, we work hard every day … but when you have the poorest of the poor, it’s difficult — I’m not going to kid you it’s not,” he said. “But at the same time, we’ve done some wonderful things.”
He also said people should look at Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney’s district in South Carolina when he was a congressman, but did not elaborate on why, before saying that people should take the “high road.”
His invite comes after Trump criticized Cummings’s district in Baltimore last month as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”
Trump was specifically responding to Cummings’s criticism of the alleged conditions at the southwest border, as well as a series of videos by Baltimore County GOP official Kimberly Klacik showing Baltimore streets filled with trash and residents speaking of rodents.
He may also have been responding to a subpoena Cummings’s committee launched to obtain information on White House officials who may have used social media applications to discuss work matters.
Cummings during his discussion at the NPC on Monday also claimed his 10-year-old niece had asked him if she was going to be put in a cage, in reference to the illegal immigration crisis at the border.
He also said he is visiting Appalachia in West Virginia next week, where people are suffering and that he wanted to take care of his neighbors and people in other states.
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