Trump meets Black Caucus and vows action on drug prices

President Donald Trump had a “candid” discussion with members of the Congressional Black Caucus on Wednesday, lawmakers said, while also repeating his politically challenging campaign promise to tackle high prescription drug prices.

Trump vowed action to lower drug costs ahead of a meeting with the caucus that also touched on Trump’s recent budget proposal, infrastructure, poverty and criminal justice reform, according to the CBC’s chairman, Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.).


“I think we’re going to do it in health care, or we’re going to do it separately, but we’re going to bid down drug prices, and we’re going to try to have the lowest prices anywhere in the world from really the highest,” Trump told the lawmakers, according to a pool report.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), a CBC member, and Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) held what they called a positive meeting with Trump two weeks ago, focused on allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices. Trump also has signaled interest in allowing imports of cheaper Canadian prescription drugs — an issue championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and other Democrats.

Richmond and fellow CBC members were eager for a substantive sit-down with Trump that would address the president’s infamous campaign pitch to African-American voters, which alienated lawmakers in the caucus.

“We wanted to answer for him the question of what do we have to lose,” Richmond said, speaking outside the White House flanked by six fellow members of the caucus.

The CBC released a 129-page briefing book that its members offered to Trump during the meeting, entitled “We Have A Lot to Lose: Solutions to Advance Black Families in the 21st Century.”

Members of the caucus kicked off their remarks by jokingly thanking American Urban Radio Networks reporter April Ryan for setting up the meeting — a reference to a Trump back-and-forth last month with Ryan, who is African-American. During a recent televised news conference, Trump asked Ryan if the CBC members were “friends of yours” and if she would set up a meeting with the CBC for him.

The meeting also involved “candid” discussion of certain concerns, including Trump’s depictions of black communities as crime-ridden and voting rights, Richmond said.

“We never thought we’d agree on everything in this meeting,” he added. “But the one thing that we did ask is for both sides to be candid so that we could represent our constituents to the best of our ability. … He listened and we talked and we proposed a lot of solutions, many of which I think he had not heard before.”

Trump's 'great relationship' with African Americans A look back on President Trump's remarks on the African-American community.

Richmond also responded to criticism levied about the CBC’s decision to meet with Trump at all, given his role in stoking the birther lie about former President Barack Obama and previous comments that were perceived by some as racist.

“We don’t have the luxury to not meet with the president,” Richmond replied, “because our people are going to suffer — the 78 million we represent.”

Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.), the CBC's parliamentarian, told POLITICO that lawmakers discussed with Trump "the way that he characterizes the African-American community, as if all of us live in abject poverty in our cities." The meeting lasted about an hour and didn't touch further on prescription drugs after Trump's early comments, Brown said.

But CBC members did bring up Trump's unfounded claim that he was wiretapped by Obama, Brown said, communicating that the allegation "doesn’t go well" with members of the African-American community.

Richmond, who apologized earlier this month to Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway for joking at a press dinner that she looked “familiar” on the White House couch, said he looks forward to semi-regular meetings with the president. Brown said that Trump "offered to meet with us regularly," and that CBC members also requested that Cabinet members be available for meetings.

