TWS Staff Report:
Few people have been a target of the legacy media like Dr. Ben Carson, famed neurosurgeon and former member of the Trump cabinet. Late last week, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins sat down with the longtime conservative on “Washington Watch,” and the two men discussed a number of topics, including how Dr. Carson handles the Left’s hostility, what the country would look like if Joe Biden hadn’t been elected, and how believers can help get America back on the right track. Here’s what the former presidential candidate had to say.
TONY PERKINS: Election season is well underway now, and the Left and their legacy media collaborators have ratcheted up their attacks on Christians who participate in the political process. Now, we’ve seen this before, right? This is not new, but here’s what you need to understand: these attacks are designed to silence and intimidate Christians. And as I’ve said many times, courage breeds courage. As followers of Christ, we cannot allow these attacks to cause us to shrink back and be silent. We know what is true, we know what is right, and we need to be willing to state that. Joining me now to discuss this is a man who always stands bold for his faith. It’s been an honor to work with him, especially when he was in the Trump administration as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development. He was a 2016 presidential candidate, and before that, a pioneering neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins. He is now the founder and chairman of the American Cornerstone Institute. And he’s a great friend. Dr. Ben Carson, welcome back to the program.
BEN CARSON: Well, thank you, Tony. It’s always good to be with you. And thank you for being so courageous yourself and being a patriot.
PERKINS: Well, it’s a lot easier when I’ve got others that are willing to stand, and you’ve done that. And I’ve talked about this before. You could have easily left the scene after the Trump administration ended, but you’ve stepped up and you’ve started your own organization that’s helping teach children about America, instilling patriotic values. And you’re out there talking and as a result, you’re being attacked by the media. I want to play a clip from Joe Scarborough from “Morning Joe” and his attack on you, and I want to allow you to respond to that.
[CLIP FROM MSNBC’s “MORNING JOE”]: “[Trump’s] got Ben Carson out there, you know, comparing him to the second coming of Jesus too — like it just … [inaudible]. Do we, Alex, do we have that Ben Carson thing where it’s just … [he] compared [Trump] to King David, a man after God’s own heart?”
PERKINS: All right, Dr. Carson. What do you say?
CARSON: Well, talk about distortion and lies. First of all, I never compared him to King David. I said, if many of the people who hate and criticize Trump today had been alive at the time of King David, they would have said the same kinds of things about him, because of some of the things that he was involved in. But God can use all kinds of different people for different occasions. And that was the context in which it was said, and I never said anything about the Second coming of Christ or any of these things. They just take it and distort it.
PERKINS: That’s the one they want to throw in. I’ve heard that several times, and I’ve not heard anybody talking about that. But it is a distortion. [And] this is the leftist media. And you talk about disinformation. I mean, [these are] the ones who want a corner on the market when it comes to telling the American people what’s going on.
CARSON: Well, also bear in mind when you’re talking about Marxism — and a lot of their policies and their ideology stems from Marxism — the last thing that the Marxists want is any other source of dependency or comfort than themselves. And therefore, anything that references God — particularly as a savior — is anathema to them. And they will continue to attack it. And you’ll see the attacks ramping up viciously as the election approaches.
PERKINS: I think that is a large part of it. I also think that the more they talk, the more we realize there’s a total lack of biblical knowledge when we see what the media has to say and their interpretation of Christianity. But here’s the bottom line, Dr. Carson. And again, you’re Exhibit A of this. If you’re going to step into the arena and you’re going to encourage Christians to engage and to allow their faith to guide their vote, you just need to be prepared that the legacy media is going to come after you.
CARSON: There’s no question that they will. The way I kind of look at it [is], how long can they attack you and what can they do against the backdrop of eternity? So it doesn’t really worry me too much. I just need to make sure that I’m in the good graces of God. I don’t care too much about whether I’m in the good graces of those who oppose God and God’s agenda. Courage is something that’s so important to liberty, because you cannot be the land of the free if you’re not the home of the brave.
PERKINS: Absolutely. And that’s where I think as Christians, number one, Jesus warned us that this was going to happen. He told us that … when we came toward the end, there were going to be those that hated us because they hated him. And there was going to be a lot of deception out there — and we needed to follow his teaching, follow the Word, be in the Word, understand the Word, and be bold in standing up for it. I want to play another clip. This clip is from Vice President Kamala Harris, who was on “The View” talking about the upcoming election and ‘the crazies.’ All right. Play the clip of Kamala Harris.
[KAMALA HARRIS CLIP]: It’s unfortunate that there are some who would deny fact or overlook it, when in fact, moving toward progress requires that we speak truth.
CARSON: [Chuckles]
PERKINS: I do believe we need to speak truth, but I’m not quite sure we’re getting it from the Biden administration.
CARSON: Well, one thing I’ve noticed about that administration is whatever they accuse you of is what they’re doing. Projectionism — completely. And you talk about not telling the truth to sit there and say until very recently that there’s no problem at the border. “We have complete control of that.” And when it reached the point where people were being sent from Texas and Arizona and other border states to New York and to Chicago and to various places — and you could no longer deny that there was a problem, that it was facing everybody — that’s the only way you ever get them to admit that there was anything going on.
PERKINS: Right, but see, they have the media. And this is what folks need to understand: the media is complicit with them. And so, they’re able to get away with these things, [whereas] the media during the Trump administration manufactured or — okay, I’ll be a little generous — they twisted things to make things appear that were not. As opposed to what they’re doing with the Biden administration, [which is] actually refusing to cover things just so it’s covered up.
CARSON: Well, you know, I was a victim of that when they said that I purchased a $31,000 dining room table while trying to cut the budget for poor people. And of course, I never did purchase a $31,000 table. The whole dining room suit, which was 17 pieces, cost $31,000. That’s a big difference. One table, which is 17 pieces, which we never bought, because my wife in particular was upset about the prices of things. And she [said], “I know some wonderful consignment shops where you could get some quality stuff for a fraction of this cost.” But the whole thing incited an IG investigation — inspector general investigation — that cost more than $1 million of taxpayer money over a $31,000 supposed table that was never bought.
PERKINS: … But the media fueled that. The media fueled that, because it was a narrative that they wanted to talk about. But when you talk about real policy issues — like what’s happening at the border — if it were not for conservative media outlets, it’s just total crickets among the leftist media.
CARSON: But I am actually encouraged by what I’m seeing with so many people not buying into the attempt by the Left to use the Department of Justice to eliminate their political opponent. Because if we allow them to succeed, America will never be the same again.
PERKINS: 100%. I’ve got this other clip I want to play of Kamala Harris to get you to respond to it…
[CLIP FROM “THE VIEW”] Joy Behar: “Now, are you scared? First of all, what could happen if Trump ever became, God forbid, president again? And what are you going to do to stop the crazies?” Kamala Harris: “I am scared as heck. Yeah. Which is why I’m traveling our country.”
PERKINS: Is that why you’re traveling the country as well? You know what is at stake in this election?
CARSON: That’s exactly the reason. You know, this is a critical election. We’ve already seen a massive switch in the direction of our country just in the last three years. Imagine what another turn of that kind of philosophy would do. Look at the chaos that’s going on in the world. You know, we had a lot of peace initiatives with the Abraham Accords. There was obviously some semblance of camaraderie that was developing there — [now] all destroyed. [Vladimir] Putin was holding off. We’ve empowered him, quite frankly, with our energy policies, making his oil much more valuable and giving him the resources to carry on the kind of warfare that’s going on with Ukraine almost indefinitely while draining our resources. China is being emboldened. You know, chaos is prevailing because we show weakness rather than strength.
PERKINS: So, Dr. Carson, you had a front row seat. You were a part of the cabinet of the last administration. … You were there from the start. If, let’s just say that we were still we were in the second term of a Trump administration, do you think the world would be as it is today?
CARSON: No, I don’t think any of the things that I just talked about would be going on. In addition to that, we would have continued developing our energy resources, and we would be exporting large amounts of liquid natural gas to Europe and other parts of the world — not only supplying their needs, but helping to decrease our budget deficits. And I think we certainly wouldn’t be entertaining all of this craziness that’s going on in our school system teaching children. I mean, I just feel bad for the little kids today. The stuff that they’re being exposed to, it was never meant to be. And some of the books that we exposed them to have things in them that would embarrass an adult looking at them.
PERKINS: Thanks for bringing that up, Dr. Carson, because you have probably — more than most — an appreciation for education, public education, for the ability to have books and read. So when we’re talking about these things, obviously, for the moral aspects we oppose [them]. But if you are pushing all this crazy transgender nonsense and all this sexualization of our children, it has to supplant something else. So when they’re doing this, they’re not doing something that might actually lead to success, which again, you’re Exhibit A of what can happen when you have the opportunity for an education.
CARSON: Well, in a recent survey, it was discovered that 77% of high school students in Baltimore were only capable of reading at an elementary school level. You know, that’s going to impact their lives. And we’re seeing those kinds of statistics all over our country. And when we look at the multi-national evaluations, we have a tendency to end up very close to the bottom, particularly in science and math. These are things that are going to hurt us. They already are hurting us. They will hurt us more in the future if we don’t go ahead and deal with them. And let school be school. … But, you know, part of the problem, and we’ve talked about this on your program before, is the breakdown of the traditional nuclear family, which is where values are generally passed on. So unless we can get that back, it’s an uphill battle.
PERKINS: Dr. Carson, we just have about a minute and a half left. As we move [in earnest into] the 2024 election cycle, we’ve talked about a number of issues here, but what are the top three issues that you say we have to get [right]… ?
CARSON: Well, we clearly are going to have to deal with the southern border with, you know, just an open border with all kinds of people coming in, including terrorists. And if the terrorists aren’t coming here and planning something really bad, then they’re guilty of terrorist malpractice. That’s big. That’s a big one. And then the economy, we need to go back and understand what the underlying things are. You know, a lot of economists like to say [the] economy is just cyclical — sort of like a sine wave up and down. It doesn’t have anything to do with what’s going on. That’s not true. It has to do with the fact that sometimes we have people in office who know what they’re doing and understand the economy — and sometimes we don’t. And so we need to deal with that. And then we need to bring back faith. We need to bring God back into our society. That is the most important thing. The other things will fall in line if we do that.
PERKINS: I think you are 100% correct. Dr. Ben Carson, we’re out of time for today. But as always, great to see you and thanks so much for joining us
