Nancy Pelosi calls Jared Kushner a Baltimore 'slumlord' after Trump's racist attacks

Mr Trump has attacked Baltimore as 'rat infested'. His son-in-law is a landlord there

Clark Mindock
New York
Friday 02 August 2019 06:13 BST
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House speaker Nancy Pelosi has taken a swipe at Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, after the president attacked the city of Baltimore as a “rat-infested” area.

Ms Pelosi took aim at Mr Kushner by referencing that the real estate developer turned White House adviser owns property in the city, and his tenants say the conditions there are less than rosy.

“The president — this comes as no surprise — really doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Ms Pelosi said on Thursday. “But maybe you could ask his son-in-law, who is a slumlord there, if he wants to talk about rodent infestations.”

Ms Pelosi is a native of Baltimore, but serves a district in California.

Her reference to Mr Kushner as a slumlord comes after the Associated Press visited an apartment complex there, and spoke to residents who said their apartments are infested with mice that they cannot get to go away.

“I don’t know how they come in,” said Davon Jones, a tenant. “Every time I catch them, they come right back.”

Mr Trump has been criticised as racist for his attacks on Baltimore, and congressman Elijah Cummings, a civil rights icon who represents a portion of Baltimore in Congress.

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The attacks — and the uproar that has followed — have effectively drawn attention to the issue, and came as Mr Cummings and fellow Democrats ramped up their investigations into the president’s businesses and relatives.

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