Ben Carson proved he is just as unqualified to talk about Army bases named for Confederate officers as he is to be HUD secretary.
Carson was the guest on Fox News Sunday and ABC’s This Week today to talk about racial issues and the Trump administration. Neither show asked what the scandalously unqualified Carson is working on at the Department of Housing and Urban Development to improve lives for African Americans. Probably because the answer is "nothing." If anything, Carson has reversed progress on fair housing.
Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace did ask Carson about the move to rename the 10 Army bases named for Confederate officers.
WALLACE: I want to ask you also about what seems to be a pretty significant cultural shift that’s going on in this country. NASCAR, with its deep roots in the south, has now banned Confederate flags from all of its races. The Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee voted to rename military bases named after Confederate generals but President Trump tweeted this this week, “our history as the greatest nation of the world will not be tampered with. Respect our military."
Question: Does the president risk being left behind at this moment of change in this country?
CARSON: Well, Chris, you know you're a person who knows a lot about history and you probably know that many of the bases were named after Confederate generals as a conciliatory movement after the [Civil] War and to now change that would be having exactly the opposite effect.
We have to recognize that we have a history and to try to hide that history is probably not a smart move. …
You know, think about this: Smart people, wise people use their history in order to improve. Other kinds of people try to bury their history.
FACT CHECK: All 10 of the Army bases named for Confederate officers were established in the 20th Century, decades after the Civil War ended in 1865. The Washington Post explains why: “The bases, all in former Confederate states, were named with input from locals in the Jim Crow era. The Army courted their buy-in because it needed large swaths of land to build sprawling bases in the early 20th century up through World War II.”
In other words, it had nothing to do with Civil War reconciliation.
Wallace, who did a better job than Carson of highlighting racial disparities in policing during the interview, did not correct the falsehood.
You can watch Carson’s arrogant ignorance (or deceit) below, from the June 14, 2020 Fox News Sunday.