Cummings Turns down Trump Administration’s Invitation to Tour Baltimore HUD Facility
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) declined to tour a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) facility in Baltimore with HUD Sec. Ben Carson amid a heated exchange with President Donald Trump over the city’s dilapidated conditions.
Carson extended an invitation to Cummings on Tuesday to tour a HUD-run housing project in his home congressional district and assess the city’s longstanding and escalating rodent infestation. Cummings subsequently passed on the opportunity.
“Secretary Carson’s office invited Congressman Cummings yesterday evening,” a source familiar with the situation confirmed to the Daily Wire. “The Congressman was unable to join due to scheduling conflicts.”
Trump ignited a firestorm a week earlier after he criticized Cummings for bullying Border Patrol agents over the conditions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities along the southern border while his own congressional district in Baltimore is a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”
The president immediately faced widespread backlash over what many on the left side of the aisle attributed as racially-motivated accusations. In response, Trump doubled down on the remarks and accused Democrats of always playing “the race card.”
Mr. President, I go home to my district daily. Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors.
It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents.
— Elijah E. Cummings (@RepCummings) July 27, 2019
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