In light of news from the Congressional Black Caucus declining to meet with President Trump, his Senior White House aide Omarosa Manigault has some unkind words for its members. The Hill reports:
Senior White House aide Omarosa Manigault accused members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) on Friday of "showboating" and refusing to serve their constituents, after the lawmakers refused an invitation to meet with President Trump.
"Coming to the table over and over again to work through these issues is the only effective way to get where they wanted to go," Manigault told Fox Business Network's Charles Payne.
"And instead, they're showboating and they're actually shorting out their constituents that they committed to represent by not coming to meet with the president," she continued.
The CBC has met with the Trump before—the executive board sat down with the President back in March. But Trump’s lack of follow through and Omarosa’s invitation (which she signed as “the Honorable Omarosa Manigault) made them wary about committing to a sit-down, according to POLITICO.
But members of the caucus are also worried about the optics of a meeting. During their meeting with Trump in March, members of the leadership tried to avoid taking a picture with Trump for fear it would be used to make it look like they had thrown their support behind the president.
If the majority of the caucus were to go to the White House, the pressure to huddle with Trump in the Oval Office for a group photo could be tougher to avoid. “The entire caucus goes down there, it’s sort of harder to control,” the source familiar with the situation said.
Aside from the optics, Trump has done little, if anything, to address any of the policies important to the caucus, members say.
Since that March meeting, Trump has done nothing to foster a relationship with the CBC—or put anything into action. The CBC says the White House completely ignored multiple policy requests from members over the past few months.