The Washington Times reports that Hassan Giordano, a leader of a Baltimore branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said he was told that hosting Republican outreach in his office is off-limits.

Giordano, who has been an elected official on the executive board of the Baltimore NAACP for three years, calls himself “not the average conservative” because of his Muslim faith and criminal record. He told The Daily Caller that he wants to foster an environment in which “people are people regardless of party affiliation,” and in which everyone can work for civil rights. But he received irate phone calls for trying to work with Republicans:

When National found out that I was bringing the governor [Larry Hogan, a Republican], the lieutenant governor [Boyd Rutherford, a Republican], and Dr. [Alveda] King to Baltimore and the Sandtown NAACP office, they literally called and said, "There’s no way in the world they can come into our office.” Then the Mayor [Democrat, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake] — who kind of gave the us the NAACP office in Sandtown — called and said, "No, you’re not allowed." And then the president [of the Baltimore NAACP branch, Tessa Hill-Aston] called me and she said, "You know they’re having a fit because you’re bringing in too many Republicans."

The mayor's office denies this, as does Hill-Aston.

Giorgano also told The Daily Caller that the NAACP bows down to a “liberal machine” at the national level instead of looking for areas of agreement between conservatives and progressives:

[This] is what I hate about NAACP national: It’s more media-driven than being productive to help people. I’ve always stayed away from it because of that. And even being a part of it now kind of turns my stomach at times.