Maybe Ben Carson reads The Root because just one day after Senior Editor Stephen A. Crockett Jr. noted that Donald Trump’s apologist and only black Cabinet member had “done nothing for Baltimore” since becoming housing secretary, Carson hastily arranged a press conference in Baltimore to show off what he had done.
And then he promptly got booted off the premises.
As the Baltimore Sun reports, just days after Carson made news by whispering speaking up for his boss after Trump’s racist slam on Baltimore and its congressman, Elijah Cummings, Carson and his Housing and Urban Development team set up a press conference Wednesday on a vacant Baltimore lot.
But apparently the church that owns the lot, the Morning Star Baptist Church of Christ, didn’t get the memo—or an official request seeking permission—because it quickly moved to kick Carson and his team off the property.
“It’s nothing personal,” church member Greg Evans told the Sun. “I didn’t know it was Secretary Carson. I just know there were a bunch of people over there that were taking over our site. And we said, ‘Why are they here?’ They’ve not even asked for permission to be here.”
Carson and company decamped to an alley nearby, and Carson whined complained about his treatment.
Per the Sun:
Carson was not pleased. He cited what happened as an example of people refusing to work together to solve Baltimore’s problems.
“We just have all this animosity all the time,” Carson told reporters during the press conference. “For instance, you guys know, you were set up on this property, and right here is this church that said: ‘Get off our property.’ You know, a church? When we’re talking about helping the people. I mean, this is the level to which we have sunken as a society.”
Funny that the Trump whisperer should speak of things “sunken.” But I digress.
Carson then turned his attention to pointing out the work HUD has been doing in Baltimore, the subject of Trump’s recent vitriol, since he’s been in office, WJZ 13 Baltimore reports. Carson said HUD had provided grants to improve areas of Baltimore, such as tourist hub the Inner Harbor.
He also asserted that $16 billion in federal money had been provided to Baltimore since Trump came to power—but he told reporters he’d have to look into how the funds have been allocated, WJZ reports.
Well, despite Carson’s caterwauling about “animosity” and church folks thinking “only about themselves,” church member Evans was crystal clear about how HUD had helped Baltimore, telling the Sun:
Evans said the church serves the community, distributing clothes and food, offering addiction counseling and providing youth programs. He said HUD has done little to help the neighborhood under the Trump administration.
HUD officials pointed to the nearby Hollins House apartment building, which was renovated through a federal program.
However, as the Sun notes, that work on Hollins House that HUD mentioned began not under Trump, but under President Barack Obama.