President Donald Trump and members of the Congressional Black Caucus both say they are eager to meet and talk about Trump’s pledge to help America’s urban centers.
But why that meeting hasn’t taken place yet depends on whom you ask.
“I would love to meet with the black caucus, I think it’s great,” Trump said Thursday when asked by American Urban Radio Networks’ White House Correspondent April Ryan if the president planned to speak with the group about his campaign pledge.
A short time later, CBC responded on Twitter saying the White House ignored a letter sent the day before Trump’s inauguration:
During the wide ranging press conference, Trump also accused prominent African-American Rep. Elijah Cummings of cancelling a planned sit down for political reasons.
“I actually thought I had a meeting with Congressman Cummings and he was all excited and then he said, ‘Oh I can’t move it might be bad for me politically. I can’t have that meeting,’” Trump said.
The president then said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer or “some other lightweight” likely pressured Cummings to cancel the sit down.
Cummings, a former chair of the CBC, denied ever having cancelled a meeting with Trump and said the leader of a different chamber of Congress never spoke to him about it.
“I have no idea why President Trump would make up a story about me like he did today. Of course, Senator Schumer never told me to skip a meeting with the President,” Cummings said in a statement. The Democratic congressman said he was looking forward to speaking to the president about the price of prescription drugs.
Also during the press conference, Trump bizarrely asked Ryan, a veteran African-American journalist, if she could help set up the meeting and if the members were “friends of hers.”
“Many of the CBC members have contacted me since that answer, that question and answer. They are very eager to meet with this president on the issues, “ Ryan said on MSNBC.
