Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and his staffers were shown the door on Wednesday when he tried to hold a press conference at Morning Star Baptist Church of Christ in Baltimore.
Carson, who has a deep relationship with Johns Hopkins University and hospital in Baltimore, made the visit to the city on Wednesday amid the fallout over President Donald Trump’s racist comments directed at Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and his district in Baltimore, which Trump derided as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”
According to the Baltimore Sun, a church member named Gregory Evans asked Carson to leave after he noticed the secretary setting up camp in the church’s vacant lot without asking for permission.
When the HUD secretary moved his team elsewhere and began the presser, he lamented the church’s “animosity” to reporters.
“For instance, you guys know you were set up on this property right here, it’s a church, and they say ‘Get off of our property,'” Carson said. “A church, when we’re talking about helping the people.
“This is the level to which we have sunken as a society and it’s so important that we stop this, this madness,” he added.
Ben Carson claims he was kicked out of Baltimore church property because of "animosity" pic.twitter.com/n6Wk98wkq5
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) July 31, 2019
However, Evans told the Sun that it was wasn’t anything personal.
“I didn’t know it was Secretary Carson,” he said. “I just know there were a bunch of people over there that were taking over our site.”
Carson defended Trump’s remarks during his presser, saying that “there are problems in Baltimore, and you can’t sweep them under the rug.”
