Former HUD Secretary Ben Carson who disappeared into obscurity following his term in the Trump administration is back and as out of touch as ever, On Fox News Monday night, Carson compared his former boss and current hero Donald Trump to the biblical King of Judah and ancient Israel, King David. An underdog, David later became a King.
During a back and forth over Trump’s “personal behavior,” Carson said on Monday, Jan. 15, to “think about the Bible and King David.”
“Most of those people probably, if they were alive back in those days, would say, ‘Oh, what a horrible guy,’ you know, the episode with Bathsheba,” he said, referencing a biblical story where David sleeps with the wife of one of his soldiers, Uriah the Hittite, he then has Uriah killed.
“God uses different people for different times,” said Carson.
When the topic turned to systemic racism in law enforcement, though, Carson’s comments were truly astonishing.
“I grew up at a time when there was real systemic racism,” Carson told Tapper while stressing the word “real” in a suggestion that downplayed the verified existence of lasting racial bias within law enforcement.
For proof of his claim, Carson pointed to an incident in middle school where he said a teacher “berated” the other students for not performing as well as the only Black kid in the class. Carson did admit that there are some “rogue” cops but wouldn’t attribute their deadly actions to racism. He never once mentioned the routine delay in arrests (if any) and acquittals for cops who kill Black people in the HUD secretary’s inaccurate attempt at revising history.
If you’re just learning that Carson doesn’t believe racism is really a thing in 2024, you haven’t been paying attention. During his stint as HUD Secretary he introduced a plan to re-segregate public housing in America and weaken enforcement of fair housing laws. Carson and HUD have been doing their damnedest to roll back the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and an Obama-era rule that helped people to sue against unfair practices in housing.
So really, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Carson is saying all of this in the wake of passionate nationwide protests pushing back against the white supremacy the HUD secretary has pledged allegiance to.