Cummings Disputes Trump Claim He Backed Off From White House Meeting

President Donald Trump on Thursday accused Rep. Elijah Cummings of essentially calling off a long-anticipated White House meeting over politics. Cummings himself said the meeting was never called off, merely postponed for reasons having nothing to do with partisan politics.

"I was all set to have that meeting. We called him and called him. Very nice guy," Trump said during his lengthy news conference. "He wanted it, but we called, called, called, called. They can't make a meeting with him. Every day I walk in I say, 'I would like to meet with him, because I do want to solve the problem.'"

VIDEO: Cummings on CNN:

The answer came in response to a question about whether he would meet with the Congressional Black Caucus.

He suggested Cummings was told by Senate majority leader Sen. Chuck Schumer or another top Democrat that meeting with the president was "bad politics."

"And that’s part of the problem with this country," Trump said.

Video: Trump: Dems may have told Rep. Cummings not to meet with me

Trump has reached out to Cummings in the past, expressing a willingness to work with the Baltimore Democrat on prescription drug prices, and offering support to the family of aide Katie Malone, who lost six children in a Baltimore house fire. Malone herself suffered serious injuries.

For his part, Cummings said in a statement after the news conference that Trump's suggestions are untrue, that he was never told by Schumer or anybody to skip a meeting with him, and that he wasn't planning on not meeting with the president.

“I was actually looking forward to meeting with the president about the skyrocketing price of prescription drugs. What I have been doing for the past several weeks is working closely with my partner on these efforts, Senator Bernie Sanders," Cummings said. "My goal was to finalize our proposal to allow [Health and Human Services] to negotiate lower drug prices so I could present it to the President. The President has said many times that he supports this proposal, so I wanted to have our bill ready to get his support."

He said he had "no idea why" Trump put the claim out there in response to a question about the Congressional Black Caucus, and said caucus members "can answer these questions for themselves."

“The skyrocketing price of prescription drugs is an issue that affects every American family—not just people of color—and I hope the President will make good on his promise to finally allow HHS to negotiate lower drug prices on behalf of American families," Cummings said. "I look forward to meeting with him on this issue and others.”

The ranking member of the House oversight committee, Cummings has pushed for investigations into issues including those surrounding the resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russian influence on the 2016 election.

As for the caucus, they contend they sent him a letter on Jan. 19 and got no response.