Former HUD Secretary Ben Carson defended his recent endorsement of Donald Trump, doubling down on his assertion that the Justice Department under President Joe Biden has been weaponized against the former president.
On Wednesday’s installment of “CNN NewsNight,” Carson told host Abby Phillip that there is “evidence” to back up his claim.
Critics of Trump “are not seeing the big picture,” he said. “If, as I said, we allow our Justice Department to be weaponized, we will have lost something very precious and important. We will become like a banana republic. And that is incredibly important. We would have lost the Republic that Benjamin Franklin talked about.”
Trump’s former HUD Secretary Ben Carson is one of the few former Trump cabinet secretaries to endorse him.
Carson claims Trump is being politically targeted:
“Al Capone, who was a notorious killer, had one indictment, and Donald Trump has four indictments. That would tell you… pic.twitter.com/ar8X4uuBUF— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) November 2, 2023
“But what evidence do you have, Dr. Carson, that the Justice Department has been weaponized against Trump specifically?” Phillip asked. “I mean, there’s no evidence of that.”
“Well, let’s put it this way,” Carson said. “Al Capone, who was a notorious killer, had one indictment, and Donald Trump has four indictments. That would tell you something right there.”
“I don’t think that’s evidence of anything except that Donald Trump allegedly has committed conduct that has resulted in indictments,” Phillip, insisting that “there’s no evidence” of a “weaponized” DOJ, shot back.
“It’s evidence that you have a group of people, a system that is out to get this president, and they feel that he is an existential threat to their existence,” Carson replied. “And we have to recognize that America was designed for the people. It wasn’t designed for the government.”
Phillip attempted to dismiss what is, for many, plainly obvious by citing RINO “Never Trumpers,” Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
“They have said that this election is about preserving democracy, and they’ve been pretty explicit that they think Donald Trump is a threat to American democracy,” she said before asking Carson if he can “point to anything that Donald Trump has done to defend American democracy.”
“I can’t point to anything that he has done that is a threat to democracy,” Carson responded.
Phillip pointed to January 6 and Trump’s actions following the “free and fair” 2020 election.
“I think the fact that he felt that the election had been rigged, had been stolen… it’s really a matter of perspective,” Carson said, adding that those who are “particularly swayed” in one direction or another lose the ability to be “objective.”
“I want to look at the facts here,” he said.
Phillip then repeated the hyperbolic claim that January 6 was a “violent insurrection” and claimed Trump has often spoken on his social media platform, Truth Social, “about terminating the Constitution.”
The disingenuous host was presumably referring to a December 2022 post from Trump in which he railed against the “Fraudulent Elections.”
“So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION?” Trump asked. “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”
As BizPac Review reported, Trump later clarified his statement at a town hall hosted by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
“I’m not talking about terminating the Constitution. I’m talking about cherishing the Constitution. The Constitution says it was supposed to have legal and well-maintained and well-looked at elections, and we didn’t have that,” Trump said. “I cherish our Constitution, but we have to live up to the Constitution. We weren’t living up to the Constitution.”
“There are no parts of [the Constitution] that should be terminated,” Carson told Phillip, “but they need to be well interpreted. They need to be looked at in the right way.”
“I would expect, on either side, if there are people who are committing criminal activities, that they should be punished,” Carson said. “No question about that. And that goes for everybody in our system.”
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Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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