Former-pediatric neurosurgeon and current Trump-stumper Dr. Ben Carson received a probably-unexpectedly hostile welcome on “The View” Thursday morning.
Asked point-blank by host Whoopi Goldberg why he chose to endorse Trump, Carson attempted a joke, saying that when he dropped out of the presidential race, “my first choice went with me.”
“I was gonna remain neutral,” he continued once the audience and hosts caught up to him. “But then I realized that … the political establishment was aligning to protect their turf. And they don’t like the idea of people who are not beholding to them, and who cannot be controlled coming into Washington, D.C.”
Goldberg cut through Carson’s bullshit, pressing him to explain his endorsement of “a man who has bashed women, made countless racist remarks.”
“You’re Ben Carson,” she added. “Why would you align yourself with that?”
“There’s no perfect person,” Carson responded before touting Trump’s “insisting” Mar-a-Lago admit “Blacks and Jews” at a time when such integration was a rarity among swanky private clubs.
“I always say that one of the ways that you measure a person is looking at their children,” he continued, essentially saying Trump’s kids are well-behaved relative to other rich kids. “And how do their children act.”
“Well, one’s a big-game hunter,” host Joy Behar interrupted, referring to Donald, Jr. “I’m not thrilled with that.”
“That’s your privilege,” Carson responded.
Halfway through Round 2 of his condemnation of the political “establishment”/”ruling class,” Goldberg spoke her (and, I think, everyone else’s) mind again, telling Carson, “You can say that ’til the cows come home. This guy is … he’s a racist. And he’s not good for the country.”
“You’re Ben Carson,” she added. “You’re so much better than this.”
The Donald rebutted in typical fashion, shooting off a few concurrent fire tweets:
.@TheView T.V. show, which is failing so badly that it will soon be taken off thr air, is constantly asking me to go on. I TELL THEM "NO"
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 24, 2016
Explain how the women on The View, which is a total disaster since the great Barbara Walters left, ever got their jobs. @abc is wasting time
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 24, 2016
"@Doctor_S_Freud: @TheView They're all brain-dead puppets with skeletons in their closet. I say you go on and destroy them all" A dead show
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 24, 2016
Watch the heated interview in full below: