Ben Carson Responds to Ilhan Omar's Attack, Uses Her Abortion Claims Against Her
First, Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota mocked HUD Secretary Ben Carson for not meeting her standards of perkiness during a recent congressional hearing.
Then, Carson rebuked Omar by reminding her of what really matters.
“Not sure he was fully awake, maybe he meant to reclaim his time back to sleep,” Omar tweeted, referring to Carson’s request for time while Democrats assailed him with questions during a Tuesday hearing before the Democrat-dominated House Financial Services Committee.
Carson, who as a brain surgeon saved countless lives, reminded Omar that he has some first-hand experience with the powers of concentration and staying alert.
“Since you brought it up… I know what it’s like to actually be sleepy, especially after 18-hour surgeries and operating on babies in the womb. I hope @IlhanMN knows I care about all people, even those she doesn’t recognize as having a right to life,” Carson tweeted, referring to Omar’s recent attack on Alabama for a law that would outlaw most abortions.
On social media, Omar has claimed that such laws protect sexual abusers, not unborn children.
Carson, meanwhile, has spent his life saving the lives of children, including those not yet born.
Since you brought it up… I know what it’s like to actually be sleepy, especially after 18-hour surgeries and operating on babies in the womb. I hope @IlhanMN knows I care about all people, even those she doesn’t recognize as having a right to life. https://t.co/BRl3ibSKM3
— Ben Carson (@SecretaryCarson) May 22, 2019
The exchange left many proclaiming Carson the winner and supporting his position.
If Omar lives to be 100 she will never accomplish as much good as Dr. Ben Carson did in one week of his life. Nor will she have the intelligence or the humanity. She is shameless and a massive drag on the Dems. Only good thing she’ll ever do.
— Linda Suhler, PhD (@LindaSuhler) May 22, 2019
Sec. Carson, I am sorry that the hearing is framed to misconstrue your values and humanity with restricting you to “yes” or “no” responses. Having known you since 1987, I trust your faith and the biblical ref/ Hopkins motto will sustain you…”The truth will set you free.”
— Robert Van Boven (@robert_boven) May 22, 2019
I watched the disrespectful way you were treated in the hearing. I am proud of you for NOT playing their game. If they want to have a real conversation and do something without grand-standing, let them come to your office. We support you!
— Eric (@EricInSacto) May 22, 2019
Carson’s Tuesday hearing lasted three-and-a-half hours as Democrats, who have objected to Carson’s leadership at HUD throughout his two-plus years at the helm of the agency, peppered Carson with objections and questions.
At one point, Democratic Rep. Katie Porter of California asked Carson about REO rates. The acronym stands for “real estate owned” properties, which are properties owned by a bank or lender after foreclosure.
“Do you know what an REO is?” she barked.
“Oreo?” Carson replied, referring to the popular cookie.
“No, not an Oreo — an REO,” Porter replied.
Carson later explained the exchange in an interview with Stuart Varney on the Fox Business Network.
“You can see that some of the networks are only interested in those kinds of sound bites that they can use to ridicule. The fact of the matter is I was having difficulty hearing her,” he said.
Carson said he knows all about REO properties from his teenage years in Detroit.
“When a family gets into a problem with their mortgage and it’s backed by our agency we go through a lot of procedures with the banks to make sure that they don’t get foreclosed upon and the few cases where they do, obviously, we are able to sell those properties very quickly,” he said. “And the REO portfolio just over the last 10 years has dramatically decreased by 10-fold you know 65 thousand down to 65 hundred.”
He said Porter was behind the times.
“So I suspect when Katie Porter was an expert in this area things were very different,” he said. “That’s why I invited her to speak with our staff that deals with these so they can bring her up to date — maybe she would then be able to understand what’s going on.”
Carson was lambasted by Democrats for a HUD proposal to end aid to families with some members in the U.S. illegally, even if other family members are legal residents or citizens, Fox News reported.
How much tax money do illegal immigrants spend for Housing assistance when American citizens who qualify for the assistance but cannot get it ?https://t.co/i0putgvgvk
— Sui Huang (@SuiHuang10) May 20, 2019
Democratic Rep. Carolyn Mahoney of New York called the plan “despicable.”
Carson suggested actually reading his proposal.
“If you read the rule carefully, you will see that it provides a six-month deferral on request, if they have not found another place to live,” he said, adding that with renewals, a family can have the end of aid deferred “for a total of 18 months, which is plenty of time for Congress to engage in comprehensive immigration reform so that this becomes a moot point.”
“If, in fact, you want to explain to the American citizens who have been on the wait list for several years in your district in New York why we should continue to support families who are not here legally, I would be happy to join you in helping explain that to them,” Carson said.
In a commentary piece posted on Fox News, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich sided with Carson.
“In effect, thousands of Americans are being discriminated against in favor of people who are here illegally – or are unlawfully receiving taxpayer aid they do not deserve and should not be getting,” Gingrich wrote.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
