The battle over Baltimore continued Thursday with President Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi fighting over who deserves blame for problematic conditions in the city.
Mrs. Pelosi went to bat for her former city, where her father was once mayor, saying the president should ask his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who owns property in Baltimore, about rats.
“The president — this comes as no surprise — really doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Mrs. Pelosi said, multiple news outlets reported. “But maybe you could ask his son-in-law, who’s a slumlord there, if he wants to talk about rodent infestations.”
Mr. Trump defended Mr. Kushner, saying Democrats are the cause of the city’s problems.
“I think the responsibility is the people who’ve run Baltimore for so many years,” he told reporters at the White House when told of Mrs. Pelosi’s jab.
“They’ve run Baltimore into the ground,” the president said, adding that he saw the same decay in other Democrat-run cities, too. He told journalists to report on that.
Baltimore and its congressman, Rep. Elijah Cummings, came under fire from Mr. Trump last weekend when the president called the city a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.” He was angered by Mr. Cummings’ criticism of Homeland Security’s handling of the illegal immigrant surge at the border. Mr. Cummings had suggested the department mistreated children and that Secretary Kevin McAleenan was misleading Congress.
Mr. Kushner’s family company owns thousands of Baltimore apartments, several of which have been criticized for the same pest problems Mr. Trump has dinged the Democrats for.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
• Gabriella Muñoz can be reached at gmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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