Dr. Ben Carson thinks race relations were better in America before the election of President Barack Obama.
The retired African-American pediatric neurosurgeon who rose to national prominence after his harsh criticism of the Affordable Care Act at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013 made the comments Tuesday on The Hugh Hewitt Show.
Hewitt: Is it going to get worse before it gets better in the United States? Because, after all, we’ve had an African-American president for six years, Ferguson is a racially-charged situation. You’re an African-American running for president on the Republican side, and I say that with the assumption that you will run, and I know you haven’t formally declared, but you’re all but in. Is it going to be another hundred years before this tableau stops unfolding every time there’s a white-black incident?
Carson: Well, you know, I actually believe that things were better before this president was elected. And I think that things have gotten worse because of his unusual emphasis on race.
Hewitt: Can you explain more? What do you mean by that? How did they get worse, and how did he contribute to it?
Carson: Well, for instance, in the incident with Henry Louis Gates, Skip Gates, and him calling out the police, and you know, how they always do this kind of thing. The Trayvon Martin case, you know, if I had a son, this is what he would look like, rather than trying to take the balanced, objective look at things, and then, you know, what’s happened here. And then the way, which really irritates me to some degree, the way he and a bunch of progressives manipulate, particularly minority communities, to make them feel that they are victims. And of course if you think you’re a victim, you are a victim.
Hewitt: Was Michael Brown a victim, Dr. Carson?
Carson: Well, he became a victim based on perhaps not having a well-established ideal of how to relate to authority.
Hewitt: Let me also ask you when you say things were better before this president, some have said the President plays the so-called race card. Do you think he does?
Carson: Yes, absolutely.
Hewitt: Is he doing so right now? Carson: He’s trying very hard not to, because I think he is aware that people are suspicious of him doing that. So you know, we keep an eye on him and hope for the best.
Carson has recently been urged to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. His recent book, "One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America's Future," appeared to many observers as his first foray into a potential presidential campaign.
He recently told the Christian Broadcast Network that he "felt {God's) fingers" moving him toward a run for the Oval Office. "I feel fingers. But it's mostly me. I have to be sure and it's part of my personality that says always look before you leap but don't leap before you have to."