Ben Carson was kicked off the property of a Baltimore church where he tried to give a press conference about the city’s problems

AP Photo/Matt Rourke

• President Donald Trump‘s Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson was kicked off the property of a Baltimore church for giving a press conference without the church’s approval.
• Carson’s last-minute press conference came after Trump fired off a series of tweets over the past weekend slamming the city of Baltimore and one of its representatives, Rep. Elijah Cummings, over its living conditions. 
• According to the Baltimore Sun, Carson and some HUD staffers decided to stage the press conference at what they thought was a vacant lot behind the Morning Star Baptist Church of Christ.
• But the Sun reported that HUD didn’t get proper approval from the church to hold the conference in their lot, causing church members to boot Carson and his team off the property.
• Carson slammed the church for forcing him to move, saying, "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."
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President Donald Trump‘s Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson tried to give an impromptu press conference discussing Baltimore’s problems at a local church, but was swiftly booted off the property by church officials. 

"There are a lot of excellent and wonderful people here," Carson said, according to Baltimore’s CBS Local. "And there are a lot of good places in Baltimore as well. But there are problems and we can’t sweep them under the rug."

Carson worked as a renowned neurosurgeon out of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for decades before going into politics, and decided to speak out in defense of some of Trump’s controversial statements about the city. 

Carson’s last-minute press conference came after Trump fired off a series of tweets over the past weekend slamming the city of Baltimore and one of its representatives, Rep. Elijah Cummings, over its living conditions. 

Trump described the city as a "disgusting, rat and rodent-infested mess," saying of Cummings, "if he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place," further calling it "the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States" and claiming that "no human being would want to live there."

Read more: ‘Better to have a few rats than to be one’: The Baltimore Sun’s editorial board rails against Trump in a scathing column

According to the Baltimore Sun, Carson and some HUD staffers decided to stage the press conference at what they thought was a vacant lot behind the Morning Star Baptist Church of Christ in the West Baltimore neighborhood of Woodlawn.

But the Sun reported that HUD didn’t get approval from the church to hold the conference in their lot, causing a church member to boot Carson and his team off the property.

Gregory Evans, the church congregant who kicked Carson out of the church lot, told the Sun that it was "nothing personal," adding, "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, however, interpreted the church asking him to leave as an example of "animosity" as he was forced to leave the property and hold the conference in an alleyway. 

He said to reporters: "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."

Read more: House Republicans plan to hold one of their biggest annual meetings in Baltimore, a city which Trump says is ‘dangerous’ and ‘filthy’

Carson added: "What I’m saying is, you know, we have a society in which people, instead of trying to be helpful, think only about themselves. That is a problem."

In his comments at the press conference, Carson recalled treating children who lived in dangerously rodent and roach-infested homes in Baltimore, adding, "Somehow — I guess that’s how God works — I ended up as the Secretary of HUD, and we can actually deal with these issues."

But Evans, the church member who made Carson move his presser off the church property, told the Sun he believes  that his church has done more to help the local community than Carson’s HUD has.

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See Also:

• ‘The Wire’ creator David Simon blasts Trump as ‘racist moron’ over tweets attacking Baltimore
• Jared Kushner’s troubled Baltimore housing complexes could be the ‘disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess’ Trump tweeted about
• ‘Better to have a few rats than to be one’: The Baltimore Sun’s editorial board rails against Trump in a scathing column

SEE ALSO: Trump’s tweets about Baltimore being a ‘rat and rodent infested mess’ are perfect descriptions of properties Jared Kushner owns there

Source: Business Insider – gpanetta@businessinsider.com (Grace Panetta)