A top Democrat has strongly disputed Donald Trump’s claim that he told the president: “You will go down as one of the great presidents in the history of our country” in an Oval Office meeting.
In a statement to the Guardian, Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House government reform and oversight committee, made clear that what he actually told Trump was different. “During my meeting with the president and on several occasions since then, I have said repeatedly that he could be a great president if – if – he takes steps to truly represent all Americans rather than continuing on the divisive and harmful path he is currently on,” said Cummings.
In addition, a Cummings aide told the Guardian that the Maryland Democrat also suggested that the president “should start leading instead of tweeting” in their March meeting in the Oval Office.
Trump’s statement about Cummings came in the course of a long, discursive interview with the New York Times in the Oval Office. The president was attempting to claim Democrats were acting hypocritically by praising him in private and then bashing him on television. “I watched him on television yesterday and I said, ‘Was that the same man?’” Trump said of Cummings.
The meeting with Cummings as well as Democrat Peter Welch of Vermont and Redonda Miller, the president of Johns Hopkins hospital, was held in early March and focused on rising prescription drug prices. Since the meeting, Cummings has not held back in pointed criticisms of the Trump White House, including calling top Trump aide Steve Bannon “a white supremacist-type person” in an interview on Tuesday.
