CNN host pushes back on Ben Carson saying Trump not 'highly vindictive'
CNN’s Abby Phillip pushed back on Ben Carson, who served as Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary under the Trump administration, after he argued that former President Trump is not a "highly vindictive individual."
When asked if he would support his former boss going after President Biden if reelected in November, Carson said he thought Trump would take a different road.
“I think in his speech yesterday, or the day before, we found that he took a more conciliatory tone and recognizes that the problems that face us right now are enormous and we could spend a lot of time going after people or we could address those problems,” Carson, who ran an unsuccessful presidential campaign against Trump in 2016, told Phillip.
“I think we’ve already seen that President Trump is not a highly vindictive individual, in that he didn’t go after Hillary after he was elected in 2016,” he added.
The question comes after the former president argued in a post on Truth Social that if he is not granted presidential immunity in the election subversion case surrounding his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election, Biden wouldn't be safe either.
Following his remarks, Phillip pushed Carson further on Trump's words.
"He’s literally pledged to prosecute … Joe Biden. He said he would do that. He said he would go after people who wronged him," she said.
Carson responded, saying he has a tendency to “look and see what people do, not so much what they say, particularly in the heat of [the] political environment.”
The CNN host argued that the former president, who is the current GOP front-runner in the Republican race for the White House, "talks about getting revenge almost every day."
"Should voters not take that seriously? Should voters have to wait until he’s actually president to find out if that’s going to happen?" she asked.
In response, Carson implied Trump would be too busy to have "time to be vindictive."
Carson endorsed the former president in October, during a campaign stop in Iowa.
The state held its caucuses Monday, officially kicking off the contest for the Republican presidential nomination. Trump easily won over Granite State voters, taking home the victory.
In a recent interview with Fox News’s Neil Cavuto, Carson likened Trump to King David when he was asked how the former president might get over the hump with voters he may have lost due to his rhetoric.
“Well, you know, you think about the Bible, and King David. Most of those people, if they were alive back in those days, where they say, ‘Oh, what a horrible guy.' God uses different people for different times," Carson said.
He continued, claiming the country needs someone with a “Manhattan business type of personality,” and someone who has dealt with wolves — not necessarily a “flowery, nice person."
“That doesn’t mean he can’t be," the former HUD secretary added. "I’ve seen him when he’s not being attacked. He’s a wonderful person — everybody, I think, would love him."