President Trump Continues To Tweet About Rep. Elijah Cummings, Ben Carson Defends President's Comments

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Wednesday night, President Donald Trump again tweeted about Rep. Elijah Cummings.

"The Radical Left Dems went after me for using the words "drug-infested" concerning Baltimore. Take a look at Elijah C.," President Trump said.

The Congressman has tweeted that he will continue to "serve as a check on the Executive Branch." 

The most recent tweet comes after Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson came to Baltimore Tuesday and defended President Trump's attacks on the city.

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"There are problems and we can't sweep them under the rug," Dr. Carson said.

Carson made his remarks in front of  Hollins House, a federally-funded senior apartment building. 

Beforehand, an advance team cleaned trash from a vacant lot behind Hollins House. The Morning Star Baptist Church owns the property and asked Carson and HUD officials to leave their property — when HUD tried to hold the press conference on the lot.

"We didn't know he was here. He didn't ask to be here," church member Gregory Evans told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren. "They were cleaning up things. Why? To make it look good for him? They weren't doing it for us."

Dr. Carson criticized the church in his comments to reporters.

"You guys know. You were set up on the property." Carson said. "A church! When we're talking about helping people. This is the level we have sunk to as a society."

Evans, who has attended Morning Star for more than 50 years, said Carson's comments were offensive.

"He knew absolutely nothing about this church when he made that comment," Evans said. He accused Secretary Carson of "using it as a photo op." Evans said asking Carson to leave had nothing to do with him being a member of the Trump cabinet.

The President started tweeting Saturday about Baltimore, calling the city a "dangerous and disgusting rat and rodent-infested mess" and a "dangerous and filthy place" where "no one would want to live." 

He doubled down on the comments Tuesday, speaking twice about Baltimore from the White House, saying the people of Baltimore were "living in hell" and accusing Congressman Elijah Cummings, the House Oversight Chair, of corruption without providing proof.

Carson said he spoke to the president about visiting Baltimore.

He said Mr. Trump feared "being treated hostile" but may still come to the city.

Mayor Jack Young said Tuesday that President Trump's recent comments are "beneath the dignity of the office."

Dr. Carson spent decades in Baltimore as a pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins. He said he often worried about patients going home to "East Baltimore, West Baltimore, where there were rats and roaches and mice and ticks and unabated lead problems."

Carson said there are positive things going on in Baltimore and praised the people of the city. "I'm not one who likes to point fingers," the secretary told reporters.

His office said Congressman Cummings had been invited to the press conference. He did not attend. 

The invitation was extended the evening before, and by that time, Cummings' schedule was full.

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• Elijah Cummings
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