This is what he said. I would expect Congress to play along too -- just how unpopular would it be to abandon Baltimore??
1/8 red house seats. The other 7 very comfortably blue.
The rest of the state doesn't seem like it matters much to the only results they'd care about - seats and EC votes.
Edit: not that Republicans are any better.
As someone else posted above, Baltimore is a massively important US seaport, that moves tons and tons of goods.
Even the most pro-business Republican realizes that a lot of industries are going to get hurt, and in places far away from Baltimore, if they can't move freight through there.
I mean I'm from the Baltimore area and.. well.. I mean some of us would consider that town somewhat abandoned already, think Detroit. It has some pretty rough parts. With the main triggering event being 60s/70s loss of steel industry (Bethlehem Steel). Of all the big east coast cities (Boston, DC, NYC, Philly, Baltimore) I would say Baltimore is the most abandoned already.
You underestimate how much vitriol is coming from the Right about Democratic-leaning cities. Baltimore is 60% Black and voted 87% for Biden in 2020. Baltimore isn't on the top of the list of cities they like to claim are failures, but just wait.
My dad is deep in the Right-wing media econsystem and he is convinced that the downtowns of Portland and San Francisco have been burned to the ground and the entire region is a lawless anarchy.