Dr. Ben Carson Says He Can Identify With Kavanaugh: 'There Are 2 Sides to Every Story'
WASHINGTON — Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Dr. Ben Carson told evangelicals Friday that people need to look at the "big picture" to make sense of the sexual misconduct allegation facing U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Carson, the retired pediatric neurosurgeon who ran for president in 2016 after a push from social conservative supporters, spoke during the Family Research Council's Values Voters Summit in Washington D.C. on Friday.
The annual social conservative political conference also featured remarks from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence, was the first vice president to ever speak at the event.
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Carson, who was introduced as speaking in his personal capacity, told the crowd gathered at the Omni Shoreham Hotel that prayer and faith are "an important part of who we are" as a nation and asserted that Americans must "stop listening" to those who are trying to drive America away from the values that "made us great."
In his speech, Carson spoke about prayer and faith being "an important part of who we are" as a nation and asserted that Americans must "stop listening" to those who are trying to drive America away from the values that "made us great."
"I mean, if you really understand the big picture of what's been going on, then what's going on with Judge Kavanaugh will make perfectly good sense to you," Carson remarked. "You see, there have been people in this country for a very long time — go all the way back to the Fabians — who have wanted to fundamentally change this country. They don't like what America is and what it represents, and they want to change us to another system."
In order to do that, Carson said, there are three things that liberals who are looking to change America must control: the education system, the media, and the courts.
"The first two they have," he said. "The courts they thought they had, and it was snatched out from under their noses in November of 2016. So you know, they're like wet hornets — just completely lost control at that point and have gone off the deep end."
Carson added that the further away the political left gets from being able to control the courts, "the more desperate they become."
"And now they don't see themselves as being able to control the courts for another generation," he said. "So what is left? Chaos and destruction. And, you know, it really kind of puts this all into context."
The "chaos and destruction" that Carson might have been referring to is that hundreds of people were arrested for disrupting Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings earlier this month. NPR deemed it the "The Resistance at the Kavanaugh Hearings."
And on Thursday, over 50 were arrested on Capitol Hill for protesting against Kavanaugh in demonstrations targeting the offices of swing Republican senators.
The Senate Judiciary Committee proposed to hold a hearing for Kavanaugh and his accuser Christine Blasey Ford next week. On Saturday afternoon, Ford accepted the Senate Judiciary Committee's request to testify after previously saying she would not unless certain terms were met.
Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers at a party in the 1980s. However, Kavanaugh has denied the accusation. Conservatives have lambasted the fact that the accusation was made known to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, over six weeks ago and it only became public on Sunday.
Carson told Values Voters Summit that he can relate to the situation that Kavanaugh is facing and stressed that the legal concept of "innocent until proven guilty" is being taken for granted by many Americans today.
"We must also recognize that there are two sides to every story," Carson continued. "And I can particularly identify with this, because I remember some years ago I was operating and the phone rings in the operating room, and the nurse holds the phone up to my ear and I'm told that the university lawyers are attaching my wages for child support."
Carson, who has told this story in the past, said he was baffled by the news because he only has three children with his wife, Candy. Yet, another woman was claiming to have a son fathered by the well-known neurosurgeon and focus of the 2009 film "Gifted Hands."
"They said ... there is a woman in Florida. She says you are the father of her son. And she knows where you went to high school, college, medical school, internship, residency, even has a picture of you in scrubs," Carson recalled. "I said anybody can get that. Are you kidding me?"
A paternity suit was filed and Carson said he refused to submit a blood specimen for DNA testing.
"And I said are you kidding me? You people, as incompetent as you are, want me to send you a sample of my blood?" he recounted. "It'll be at a murder scene and I'll be in jail for the rest of my life. No way am I doing that."
"And it escalated a little more, and then it just fizzled out and died, you see, because they assume that somebody like myself, who's out and about all over the place, has probably been messing around and probably doesn't even remember all the people they've been messing around with," Carson continued. "And they would much rather just keep this quiet and pay for whatever needs to be paid."
However, Carson said he had a "secret weapon" called "truth," a remark in which he received an ovation.
"See, I knew — I knew that the only woman I had ever slept with in my entire life was my wife. So I'd have to scratch my head and ask, I think maybe that's the reason that the good Lord gave us some rules and some parameters," Carson said.
"He wanted to uncomplicate our lives. It's not because He's a tyrant who wants to control. It's because He knows what works. You know, He made us and He knows how to get the most out of us. He's not a tyrant. He's not unfair. And he provides us with the strength, the courage to move forward, to do what things have to be done, to do them the right way. He is the source of all wisdom."
Although Carson might have seemed to make light of the Kavanaugh accusations, he assured in his speech that there is "just no room" for "sexual predators, people who prey upon people who are weaker than them or in a lower position." He called people like that "abominable."
