Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary and neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson told Newsmax on Friday that Americans, particularly "people in authority," need to "stop fighting each other and trying to make people feel like victims."
While a guest on "Rob Schmitt Tonight," Carson made those comments in response to remarks made Thursday by former President Barack Obama during David Axelrod's podcast, "The Axe Files." Obama said on the podcast that Black conservatives like South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, a candidate for the 2024 presidential nomination, need to provide "an honest accounting of our past and our present."
"I would love to see people in authority, and people with a lot of influence like President Obama, talk about opportunity. Talk about the amazing progress that has been made in this country, just in his lifetime," Carson said.
"We've changed completely, and anybody who's in this country — I don't care if your ancestors came from England or Germany or Africa or Spain or China — you're probably better off here than you would have been back there."
"We need to understand that and grasp those things that are wonderful about America, and stop fighting each other and trying to make people feel like victims," he added. "If you can convince somebody that they're a victim, then they are a victim."
During the segment, guest host Sebastian Gorka also asked Carson for his thoughts regarding former President Donald Trump, and how onetime members of his Cabinet, including then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and then-Vice President Mike Pence, recently slammed their former boss for his handling of classified documents.
In a Miami federal court Tuesday, Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 counts related to mishandling classified documents.
Carson said he was "not terribly surprised" by comments from Pompeo and Pence, explaining that "People do things that seem expedient at that time, and also a lot of the things that they say, if given appropriate time to explain them, wouldn't be quite as inflammatory as they seem on the surface."
"Recognize that the president is the only one with unilateral authority over national secrets," he continued. "The secretary of state doesn't have that, and yet, Hillary Clinton knew that and destroyed the documents rather than have them be discovered. Biden, when he was vice president, he didn't have that authority, but he did it anyway. Why is there this selective outrage?"
Carson also said he was not surprised that Biden's administration had refused to identify China as the point of origin for the COVID-19 virus. However, earlier this week, U.S. government officials revealed there is significant evidence that three Chinese scientists in China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) were the first to contract COVID-19 before the virus escaped the laboratory, resulting in a global pandemic that killed millions.
"I'm not surprised that the current administration didn't want to admit it," he said, "because I have wondered about many things with the current administration and the Chinese government, and it seems like things always seem to work in favor of the Chinese government. Not sure why that is. I have some suspicions."
Carson said, "There comes a point when you have to use your brain" and use common sense. "This is the lab that already had some security issues going on, some safety issues. And if people in that lab are getting sick ... No , it's not bad. It's just the market where they sell animals down the road. ... Come on, give me a break. People are a little smarter than that."
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