Dr. Ben Carson, chair of the American Cornerstone Institute, told Newsmax on Friday he is embarrassed the U.S. is persecuting political opponents such as former President Donald Trump, with whom he worked, because it is against what this country represents.
Trump, the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, pleaded not guilty to a 37-count federal indictment in June regarding presidential documents, some deemed classified, which were stored at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
He also is facing a grand jury investigation in Washington over his alleged role in the events of Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol, and he is under investigation in Georgia over allegations he tried to overturn election results in that state.
"Think about the irreparable damage that's being done to our system and the trust that people have in our system when you go after political opponents in this way," Carson, secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Trump administration, told "John Bachman Now."
"Donald Trump was a challenge to the swamp mentality and therefore the only thing they can see is their desire to get revenge and to get rid of him.
"They're not thinking at all about the United States of America, what we represent to the world, what we have always been, a beacon of hope and of justice. All that is being thrown out the window and I'm embarrassed."
Carson said the world is noticing what is going on in the U.S.
"I talk to people from other countries, and they say, 'What's happening to your country?'" Carson said. "They are alarmed about it, too, because I think everybody realizes that if we become like China and Russia and other authoritarian nations, what do people have to look forward to?"
Carson also talked about the integrity of elections, especially given revelations in the Durham Report and the Twitter Files of how the Department of Justice and FBI apparently interfered in the past two presidential elections.
"We don't have a system that people trust anymore," Carson said. "If we can use this as a mechanism to explore our election system and all the problems with it. … Take a place like France, for instance. They outlawed mail-in balloting in 1975 because they said there were just too many opportunities for manipulation of the system. Maybe we can learn from some of the things that other people have done."
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