Ben Carson Has Rough Day On ‘The View’: Whoopi Goldberg Blasts Former Candidate For His Support Of Donald Trump
Ben Carson had a particularly rough day on The View Thursday, as Whoopi Goldberg and the other hosts grilled the former presidential candidate about his support for Donald Trump.
As the New York Daily News reports, Carson sat down with the ladies of The View for the first time since dropping out of the race for president, and for the first time since he threw his support behind Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
From the get-go, it was clear that the hosts of The View, Whoopi Goldberg in particular, could not understand why Carson, himself an African American, could get behind Trump, whose candidacy has been tainted by allegations of racism.
Whoopi started off the conversation by declining to mince words and going straight to the heart of her complaint.
“I’m sure you get this question a lot, but why did you endorse Donald Trump?”
Carson first cracked wise about his first choice being himself and then went into his explanation for why he supports Trump.
“I was going to remain neutral, but then I realized that, you know, the political establishment was aligning to protect their turf. They don’t like the idea of people who are not beholden to them and who cannot be controlled coming into Washington, D.C. And that was one of the reasons they didn’t like me very much, but I was easier to get rid of than Donald Trump.”
The conversation went downhill from there.
Throughout the interview, the women grilled Carson on Trump’s shortcomings, including Joy Behar reminding Carson of the fact that Trump had, at one point during the campaign, likened Carson to a child molester.
“He even compared you to a child molester… Unless you say you’re a child molester, he’s a liar.”
The incident to which Joy was referring took place in November 2015. As Talking Points Memo reported at the time, Carson had discussed his childhood behavioral problems, which he described as “pathological,” in his book. Speaking to CNN’s Erin Burnett, Trump intimated that pathological behavior problems can’t be cured.
“You don’t cure these people. You don’t cure a child molester. There’s no cure for it. Pathological, there’s no cure for that,”
On The View, Carson brushed off the incident, saying that Trump did indeed lie but then said that all politicians lie.
Even as the interview was taking place on live TV, Trump, who wasn’t even there, added his thoughts on the interview via Twitter.
Explain how the women on The View, which is a total disaster since the great Barbara Walters left, ever got their jobs. @abc is wasting time
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 24, 2016
Host Sunny Hostin brought up Trump’s shortcomings when it comes to how he refers to women — most recently, Trump’s attacks on Ted Cruz’ wife, Heidi, which involve, among other things, Trump tweeting an unflattering picture of Mrs. Cruz.
“@Don_Vito_08: “A picture is worth a thousand words” @realDonaldTrump #LyingTed #NeverCruz @MELANIATRUMP pic.twitter.com/5bvVEwMVF8”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 24, 2016
Goldberg asked Carson point-blank if he would tolerate that sort of thing from Trump about his own wife.
“If he had spoken to your wife the way he has spoken to some of these women, would you take that, sir?”
Seemingly having had enough, Carson gave a response that seemed to be a vague dig at the way he had been treated by Goldberg and the other hosts of The View.
“Let me tell you something, when you’re very nice, when you’re very respectful, you talk about the real issues and not get into all these issues, where does it get you? It gets you where it got me: nowhere.”
Do you believe Ben Carson was treated fairly on The View? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
[Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images]
