Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, aka “Tethered Ben Carson,” is continuing his mission to undo the legacy of Ben Carson, the world-renowned pediatric neurosurgeon.
Carson agreed with President Trump’s claim that Baltimore was a “rodent-infested mess” during his battle with Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). Apparently, Trump was upset with Cummings for doing his job, so he decided he would attack a majority-black city in the longstanding Democrat’s district as well as Cummings’ character. Carson, one of Baltimore’s shining stars who spent much of his career practicing at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, couldn’t wait to run on Fox News and support his president.
“As a pediatric neurosurgeon, I spent many hours, sometimes operating all night long, trying to give children of Baltimore and other places around the world a second chance at life. And usually we were successful,” Carson told Fox News’ most beloved ingrown toenail, Tucker Carlson, on Monday.
“But a few days later, I was in a horrible dilemma, because some of those kids had to go back into homes in East Baltimore that were infested with rats and roaches and ticks and mold and lead and violence,” Carson continued. “And I didn’t want to send them back. Sometimes I would even consider, you know, extra tests so they could stay in the hospital an extra day or two.”
From the Washington Post:
During the interview, Carson, the only African American in Trump’s Cabinet, also pushed back against critics who have characterized Trump’s tweets aimed at Cummings and other minority lawmakers as racist.
Carson cited rising wages and a drop in the unemployment rate under Trump, the president’s efforts to help the manufacturing sector and his embrace of prison reform.
“All of these things are happening,” Carson said. “These are not things that a person who is a racist would do. And we allow ourselves to be distracted by these things.”
Trump has spent several days attacking Cummings, who called out the mistreatment of migrant children being detained in facilities that aren’t equipped to handle them.
In one of Trump’s most recent tweetstorms, he called Cummings a “racist” and a “bully” and said he “has done a very poor job for his district and the City of Baltimore,” the Post reports.
Carson said he does not consider Cummings a “bad person.”
“I think he actually is working hard to try to help people,” Carson said. “And I certainly don’t think President Trump is a bad person. He’s working very hard —in fact, I asked him today, would you be willing to work with Elijah Cummings to bring some relief to the people of Baltimore? He said he would be happy to.”
The problem with Carson is that if he truly believes that Baltimore, a place where he worked for over 30 years, is in such bad shape, then as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, what has he done to help change it?
So far, since taking office as Trump’s only black cabinet member Carson has ordered himself some really expensive furniture and demoted a staffer who refused to follow his wife’s orders.
Oh, and there was also a thing surrounding Carson’s son, Ben Carson Jr. and ethical conflicts for using his position as a local businessman and his father’s clout for personal gain. And, there was his wife’s winning of a $485,000 contract from the “federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services without a competitive bidding process.”
But nothing for Baltimore. Carson has not done anything for Baltimore. And The Root’s Michael Harriot already found that Trump has a tendency to use the term “infested” when speaking negatively about communities of color.
Carson doesn’t plan to stay on if Trump wins a second term, which is fitting since he didn’t do shit while he was there.
And Carson didn’t defend Baltimore. Trump tweeted that “no human being would want to live” there. So what does that say about all of the people who currently live there? What kind of message does this give them?
The Post notes that Sunny Hostin, co-host of ABC’s The View and a former Baltimore resident, questioned why Carson hadn’t defended Baltimore.
“I’m calling out Ben Carson who spent the majority of his career in West Baltimore,” Hostin said. “As a member of [Trump’s] senior cabinet, where is Ben? Why is he not calling it? He’s in charge of housing for the Trump administration. Where are you? Why are you not defending Baltimore?”
Because, Sunny, the real Ben Carson is trapped in an abandoned subway station trying to figure out how to break free; either that, or Ben Carson is really just a plain ol’ bitch.