Housing Sec. Ben Carson On Donald Trump Saying He Has Done The Most For African Americans Since Lincoln
Trump administration Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson said on Sunday that he didn’t believe arguing over President Donald Trump’s recent claim about what he has done for the Black community “is not productive.”
Carson’s comments came in the form of an interview with ABC This Week host George Stephanopoulos on whether he stood behind the president’s recent claim that he had done the most for African Americans since President Abraham Lincoln.
The former Republican presidential candidate was first clear that he did believe the president has worked to improve aspects of Black Americans’ lives, including promoting opportunity zones, working on prison reform, and helping to push through increased funding for historically black colleges and universities.
“To get into an argument about who’s done the most probably is not productive, but it is good to acknowledge the things that have been done.”
Stephanopoulos pressed the issue further, asking if Carson believed that the president should stop making the comparison between himself and Lincoln.
The ABC host also cited work that other presidents have done in helping the Black community, including former President Lyndon B. Johnson who was the president to sign the Civil Rights Act, Ulysses Grant sending in troops to take out the Ku Klux Klan as well as former President Eisenhower who sent troops to enforce the ruling in Brown v. Board of Education when school integration began.
JUST IN: In an interview with @GStephanopoulos, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson declines to back President Trump's claim that he’s the best president for black America since Abraham Lincoln. https://t.co/MRHKNo8b2x pic.twitter.com/4gHgp308qM
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) June 14, 2020
Carson agreed that all of the noted instances were “a significant part of our history.” The HUD secretary responded to the ABC host’s question saying, “that’s an important thing for us to acknowledge, what has happened in the past.”
“And, you know, we should be willing to look at what we’ve done together collectively to make progress.”
Carson also said during his interview that he believes it’s important for Americans to start moving away from “being offended by everything, of going through history and looking at everything, of renaming everything.”
Trump made his comments about the Black community during an interview with Fox News‘ Harris Faulkner for Outnumbered Overtime in Dallas, Texas late last week.
The president assured Americans that his campaign to win the 2020 presidential election was still in full swing and that he believed he could make significant positive changes for the country if elected.
Trump also took a swing at his top competitor, Democratic nominee Joe Biden, saying that he’s “not all there” in reference to the former vice president’s assertion that Trump wouldn’t go willingly from office if he lost in November, as The Inquisitr previously reported.
During his interview, the president also warned that he believes Americans are getting a look at what Democratic policies could look like in places where protests over the death of George Floyd have been dealt in a less aggressive manner.
