Fox’s Megyn Kelly actually fed Dr. Ben Carson talking points to help him “clarify” his false claim to have seen American Muslims cheering the fall of the World Trade Center on 9/11 and his false claim that Thomas Jefferson helped “craft” the U.S. Constitution. Kelly also ignored Carson's intimation that American Muslims are no different from Iranians.
Never mind that Kelly supposedly loves one of Carson’s favorite poems called, “Yourself to Blame” about taking personal responsibility. In this interview, Kelly was all about helping Carson dodge blame. And throw a little on her nemesis, Donald Trump.
Kelly tried to help Carson revise his claim to have seen Muslims in NJ cheer on 9/11
In a clip Kelly played, Carson specifically told reporters he saw a film of Muslims in New Jersey cheering when the World Trade Center fell on 9/11. He was asked about it because Donald Trump had made that dubious claim.
Q: Dr. Carson, were American Muslims cheering in New Jersey on 9/11 when the towers fell? Did you hear about that or see that?
A: Yes
Q: Yes? Can you expand on that?
A: Well, you know, there are going to be people who respond inappropriately to virtually everything. I think that was an inappropriate response.
Q: Did you see that happening, though, on 9/11?
A: I saw the film of it, yes.
Q: In New Jersey?
A: Yes.
On the air, Kelly “asked,” “Do you want to walk that back then, publicly?”
Carson doesn't see a difference between American Muslims cheering 9/11 or foreign Muslims doing so
Carson's walk back may have been even worse than his original statement.
CARSON: What we were talking about is the reaction of Muslims after the 9/11 attack and if they were in a celebratory mood. And, you know, I was really focusing on that it was an inappropriate thing to do, no matter where they were. They asked me did I see the film. I did see the film, I don’t know where they were but I did see a film of Muslims celebrating. And I was making the point that it was inappropriate.
It was Kelly who stepped in to explain that who was doing the cheering matters. Then she hinted again as to how he should "explain" his mistake.
KELLY: But it’s important whether they were American Muslims… vs. folks over in Iran or the Middle East – that’s a much different story. So do you – you admit to a lack of caution in answering that question?
CARSON: Yeah, yeah, I mean I thought we were just talking about the fact that Muslims were inappropriately celebrating. I didn’t know that they had an agenda behind the question.
KELLY: They were trying to see whether you agree with something Donald Trump has said very publicly and ….he’s been fact-checked on it by The Washington Post, which says no. So do you believe his claim then? Do you mean to provide him with backup on his claim that he saw thousands of Americans in New Jersey celebrating the fall of the Twin Towers on 9/11?
CARSON: No, it had nothing to do with him or his claim. It really was more of a misunderstanding of what we’re talking about and me trying to make the point that celebrating that is totally inappropriate, no matter where you are.
However, Carson had specifically said he saw Muslims cheering in New Jersey and the fact that he didn’t seem to think that mattered speaks volumes about his mindset.
But Kelly either didn’t notice or didn’t want to dwell on that.
Kelly gave Carson time for an infomercial about his foreign policy cred
From there, Kelly feigned a tough question, asking why Carson thinks he has fallen in the polls, adding, “Many believe it’s the Paris attacks and people not believing you have what it takes to be commander-in-chief.”
But that was really just an opening for Carson to recite – uninterrupted by any pesky challenges – his terrorism-fighting plan. Kelly never even prodded him to answer her actual question.
Kelly assured Carson, “I know you know” Thomas Jefferson did not help craft the Constitution
Kelly moved on to help Carson rehab another gaffe.
KELLY: Gotta clarify one other thing because you got hit for an interview you gave to C-Span where you said that Thomas Jefferson helped craft the Constitution which I know you know he did not because your book says it correctly, which is he crafted the Declaration of Independence and not the Constitution. Now, to those who would say how could you make such an elemental mistake, what say you?
CARSON: I say, Thomas Jefferson, even though he was an ambassador during the Constitutional convention was in communication, there were a lot of letters. He has a ton to say about it. …No, he didn’t craft it but he was certainly in communication with the people and had a lot of input and a lot of say about it. So no, he didn’t craft it, of course not.
Of course not? It was Carson who originally said Jefferson had. But instead of explaining or just apologizing for his gaffe, Carson played the media victim.
CARSON: You know, people spend too much time looking at little words and phrases without looking at the implications or the big picture. That’s part of the problem. We’ve gotten into the minutia without looking at the big picture and many of your colleagues – not you – in the media spend all their time combing through something and saying, ‘Aw, gotcha,’ rather than thinking about how do we correct the big problems that we’re having in this nation today?
In fact the Jefferson quote is one of many gaffes that Carson has made about the Founding Fathers. Yesterday, The Washington Post noted that Carson has erroneously quoted Thomas Jefferson on the subject of gun control and has wrongly claimed that “every signer of the Declaration of Independence had no elected office experience.” The Post called that “an outlandish claim considering that all the members of the Continental Congress, which approved the Declaration, had been elected by Colonial assemblies and that the primary author of the document, Thomas Jefferson, was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, John Adams to the Massachusetts Assembly, Ben Franklin to the Pennsylvania Assembly and Roger Sherman to the Connecticut General Assembly. The Post’s Fact Checker Glenn Kessler counted 27 signers of the 51 who had at least some elected office experience.”
But Kelly didn’t mention any of those inconvenient truths. She seemed to have her marching orders as to what to discuss and that’s the path she followed.
Watch it below, from the November 23 The Kelly File.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5BtQgTGOI4
— “real” news person M. Kelly; Faux Newz