Secretary Ben Carson: President Trump is one of us, he makes promises and he keeps them
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson speaks at the final night of the 2020 Republican National Convention.
Ben Carson, the secretary of the housing and urban development, on Thursday struck back at Democrats who have called President Trump a racist, saying they “could not be more wrong.”
“President Trump does not dabble in identity politics,” Carson said during a speech to the Republican National Convention. He added: “Many on the other side love to incite division by claiming that President Trump is a racist. They could not be more wrong.”
Carson, a neurosurgeon best known for performing the first successful separation of conjoined twins in 1987, pointed to Trump securing permanent funding for the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities with bipartisan legislation in 2019, and establishing a program to spur investments in low-income communities as part of the 2017 tax overhaul. (According to a report released by the administration on Monday, the so-called opportunity zones have attracted $75 billion in capital through 2019).
Carson also noted that before the coronavirus pandemic began, the African American unemployment level was at the lowest level on record.
“President Trump is the most pro-life president in our country’s history,” he said. “He will continue to fight for those who cannot yet speak.”
Carson also referenced the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., and the at-times violent protests that have erupted in the wake of viral video that showed police shooting him seven times in the back. Blake, 29, survived, but attorneys for his family have said he is paralyzed from the waist down.
“History reminds us that necessary change comes through hope and love, not senseless and destructive violence,” Carson said.
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The shooting has reignited racial unrest across the country that began earlier this summer after the death of George Floyd, a Black man, died after a White Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into his neck for at least eight minutes.
“As Jacob’s mother has urged the country, ‘Let’s use our hearts, our love, and our intelligence to work together, to show the rest of the world how humans are supposed to treat each other. America is great when we behave greatly,'” Carson said. “In order to succeed in change, we must first come together in love of our fellow citizens.”
During a third night of unrest, looting and vandalism, two people were killed and a third was seriously wounded by gunfire. Authorities have charged 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse with homicide. He is in custody in Illinois, the Antioch police department announced in a Facebook post Thursday. His attorneys claim Rittenhouse acted in self-defense.
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Carson grew up in Detroit with a single mother who relied on subsidized housing and food stamps to support her two children, a fact that he alluded to in his speech.
“My mother always told me, ‘Ben, you can do anything, but I will never allow you to become a victim,'” he said. “It was then that I stopped listening to the people who were trying to convince me that I was a victim and that others were responsible for my victimhood.”
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