Ben Carson Defends Donald Trump: ‘He’s Not Racist At All’
Housing and Urban Development Secretary (HUD) Ben Carson defended President Donald Trump against accusations of racism in an interview with Fox News broadcast on Sunday, The New York Post reports.
Carson went on Sunday Morning Futures to discuss the attacks President Trump has been launching at progressive Congresswomen Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.
The president told the women to “go back” to their countries, despite the fact that all of them are American citizens and three of them were born in the United States. Trump’s remarks were widely condemned as racist and the controversy is not dying down as the president has continued attacking the representatives.
The attacks culminated on Wednesday at a Trump rally, where the crowd chanted “send her back!” as the president slammed and insulted Representative Omar, a Somali refugee.
None of that is racist, according to (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson.
“He is not racist at all,” Carson said of the president, proceeding to lavish him with praise.
“He lived in New York. Jesse Jackson gave him an award for the incredible things that he had done in the African?-American community. I have never seen anything that even resembles racism.”
According to the New York Post, it is unclear what exactly Carson was referencing, but he was likely talking about Trump receiving praise from Jackson for donating office space at his 40 Wall Street to the civil rights leader’s Rainbow/Push Coalition.
Long before he ignited a firestorm by telling 4 Democratic congresswomen of color to “go back” to their home countries, President Trump sought to pit Americans against one another along racial lines. Here's our look at that history. https://t.co/mNZK8IetdO
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 21, 2019
After slamming the four congresswomen as “radical,” Carson shared a few stories about his own interactions with Trump. Defending Trump against accusations of racism, the HUD secretary talked about his first encounter with the president.
The two, Carson said, met at Trump’s Mar-a-?L?ago resort. As they were talking, Trump was alerted to the arrival of legendary singer Rod Stewart. However, he refused to cut his conversation with Carson short.
Carson also recounted an embarrassing situation during a Republican primary debate in 2015, when he missed his entrance on stage. Every other candidate walked past him, he said, except Donald Trump.
“Everybody else walked gleefully past me, but Trump stood right next to me until they straightened it out. That’s the kind of person that he is,” he said of the president.
Carson praised Trump’s policies, stating that the president has brought down black unemployment, and that he has worked on reforming the criminal justice system.
“It’s what’s been done. It’s not what has been said or how it’s been interpreted and hashed over and over in the media,” he concluded.
