After Backing Roy Moore, Ben Carson Has Been Awfully Silent

We asked Carson’s spokesman if the HUD secretary still supports Moore. Here’s what he said.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson at Vaux Big Picture High School in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

On September 22, as the Republican primary race for Jeff Sessions’ old Senate seat in Alabama narrowed, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson went out on a limb for Roy Moore. Though his boss, President Donald Trump, was enthusiastically tweeting his support for the establishment-backed candidate, Luther Strange, Carson issued a carefully worded statement that stopped just short of an official endorsement of Moore, who was best known for being removed as chief justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court after ignoring a court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the courthouse. “Judge Moore is a fine man of proven character and integrity, who I have come to respect over the years,” Carson said. “He is truly someone who reflects the Judeo-Christian values that were so important to the establishment of our country. It is these values that we must return to make America great again. I wish him well and hope everyone will make sure they vote on Tuesday.” Hours after Carson issued this statement, Trump arrived in Alabama to stump for Strange, who in short order was defeated by Moore.

Since allegations have emerged that Moore, while in his mid-30s, pursued relationships with teenaged girls, including one as young as 14, Republicans around the country have called on the former judge to drop out of the Senate race. (Moore has claimed the allegations are untrue and politically motivated.) Yet Carson has remained conspicuously silent as the allegations against Moore have piled up. On Monday, a fifth woman came forward to allege that Moore assaulted her when she was 16

On Monday afternoon, after Mother Jones inquired about Carson’s stance on Moore, a Housing and Urban Development spokesman offered a general condemnation of politicians who assault women, but it did not mention Moore by name. 

“The Secretary believes any man that assaults any woman is unfit for public office,” Raffi Williams, HUD’s director of communications, said in an email.

Williams did not respond to follow-up questions about whether Carson believes Moore’s accusers.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate