As spat with POTUS simmers, Elijah Cummings declines Baltimore tour

President Trump surely knows how to command an audience.

POTUS has long been able to use Twitter to his advantage, harnessing the power of the real-time social media platform to placate, patronize, or antagonize any number of targets…and its working.  He lays bait, sets traps, and eviscerates those with whom he disagrees, all out in the most public of forums, forcing politicians and celebrities alike to play his game.

Congressional democrats Elijah Cummings is no exception, having fallen for Trump’s ruse regarding Baltimore, Maryland’s abysmal conditions – particularly in regard to rodents.

Now, as the entire nation’s eyes are on the Cummings/Trump feud, the President has invited the Congressmen to tour a Baltimore Housing and Urban Development facility with HUD Director Ben Carson.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) turned down an offer to tour a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) facility in Baltimore with HUD Secretary Ben Carson on Wednesday.

The agency extended an invitation on Tuesday but Cummings turned down the request.

When reporters asked Carson about why Cummings was not present at a press conference, he responded Cummings may have been absent due to a scheduling conflict but did not elaborate on why he skipped the tour.

Carson visited the Baltimore facility soon after a series of weekend tweets from President Donald Trump criticized Cummings for being a “brutal bully,” alleging his district was in disrepair because of his lack of oversight.

The scandal was given a lengthy stay in the national consciousness thanks to the efforts of the mainstream media to portray Trump’s words regarding natural pests as inherently “racist”.

The President has denied any racial interpretations of his tweet, implying that he was simply stating a fact regarding Baltimore’s long-standing and recurring rodent issues.