Dr. Ben Carson offered an unusual defense of Donald Trump's tenuous relationship with the truth during a Thursday interview with The View, challenging the show's hosts to "[show] me a politician who doesn't tell lies."
Joy Behar, one of the show's liberal cohosts, reminded Carson of Trump's attacks against him when they were rivals for the GOP nomination. Trump likened Carson to a child molester at one point. Trump also mocked Carson's violent youth and sleepy demeanor on the campaign trail when the two were, at one point, neck-and-neck in polls of Republican primary voters.
"He even compared you to a child molester, come on," Behar said. "It could be personal, even."
"If it were about me, I would be offended, but it's about America," Carson said. "We have to save this nation."
"But he's a liar. Unless you say that you're a child molester, he's a liar," Behar said. "You want a liar for the presidency?"
"Tell me a politician who doesn't tell lies," Carson said.
"Abraham Lincoln. I don't know," Behar said, as the crowd laughed. "But the lying that he does is continuous. It's on a regular basis. Fact check goes berserk when he talks. He's got a long Pinocchio nose."
"What I have to do is look at who is most likely to oppose the ruling class that is ruining our country," Carson said.
'@RealBenCarson, pressed with charges from The View hosts that Trump is a liar, responded: "Tell me a politician who doesn't tell lies?"
— Alexandra Jaffe (@ajjaffe) March 24, 2016
Carson has not been the best surrogate for Trump since endorsing him earlier this month, saying there were actually "two Donald Trumps" in one speech and later saying that even if Trump turned out to be a poor president, "we're only looking at four years."