Elijah Cummings: ‘People assume all black people know each other’
After a bizarre solo press conference from President Trump, Elijah Cummings would like to remind the president that not all black people know each other.
After a bizarre press conference from President Donald Trump, Rep. Elijah Cummings would like to remind the president that not all black people know each other.
Cummings made the comments after a strange exchange between Trump and White House reporter April Ryan, of the American Urban Radio Networks. Ryan wanted to know if the president was willing to work with the Congressional Black Caucus, but Trump responded by asking Ryan if she was willing to set the meeting up.
“Do you want to set up the meeting? Are they friends of yours?” Trump asked Ryan.
“No, no, no,” Ryan replied. “I’m just a reporter. I know some of them. I’m sure they’re watching right now.”
Pres. Trump raises eyebrows after asking black reporter to schedule meeting with Congressional Black Caucus. https://t.co/3AxD0KiG7m pic.twitter.com/65Y1JpHXux
— ABC News (@ABC) February 17, 2017
Trump went on to claim that he had previously tried to meet with the CBC, however, the Caucus, he said, had backed out of the meeting. Specifically, he accused Cummings of backing out of a scheduled meeting.
“I have no idea why President Trump would make up a story about me like he did today,” Cummings said in response to the accusation. “Of course, Sen. Schumer never told me to skip a meeting with the president.”
“I was actually looking forward to meeting with the president about the skyrocketing price of prescription drugs,” he added.
Cummings also took Trump to task for his comments to Ryan about setting up the meeting, saying, “I think a lot of people assume all black people know all black people.”
“At the very least he did not ask Frederick Douglass to set that meeting up,” MSNBC host Chris Hayes agreed.