Trump, reporter in odd exchange over the CBC

President asks black journalist if she wants to set up a meeting

WASHINGTON — Over the course of the bizarre news conference President Trump held Thursday, few moments crystallized the unusual nature of his presidency as effectively as an exchange he had at the end with April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks.

Ryan asked Trump if he would include the CBC in discussions addressing urban policy. The CBC is the Congressional Black Caucus, a group of African-American legislators that is often a leading voice for issues dealing with the black community. Trump appeared briefly to be unaware of what the initials stood for, so Ryan asked more pointedly. “Am I going to include who?” he asked. “Are you going to include the Congressional Black Caucus,” Ryan, who is black, asked, “and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, as well as ... ?”

“Well, I would,” Trump interrupted. “Tell you what, do you want to set up the meeting? Do you want to set up the meeting? Are they friends of yours? Set up a meeting.”

Ryan pointed out to the president that she is a journalist and that, while she does know members of the CBC, that’s not her role.

Trump went on to say that he had been trying to set up a meeting with Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee and a CBC member. He then claimed that Cummings had balked at following through, but the CBC tweeted its side of the story.

The tweet read: “Hi, @realDonaldTrump. We’re the CBC. We sent you a letter on January 19, but you never wrote us back. Sad! Letter: https://t.co/58KiuHmITF.”

This wasn’t the first dust-up between Ryan and the White House.

On Monday, Ryan accused Trump aide Omarosa Manigault of having physically intimidated her near the Oval Office and that Manigault claimed the administration was maintaining “dossiers” of information on members of the media. (White House press secretary Sean Spicer denied this in his daily briefing on Wednesday.)

During the campaign, Manigault accused Ryan of being on the payroll of Hillary Clinton, thanks to a misinterpretation of an email released by WikiLeaks.