Carson suggests problem with Trump scandal is that graphic sexual talk is too rare

The reason Donald Trump’s 2005 remarks, in which he graphically discusses sexually assaulting women with impunity, are so shocking is because such comments are too rare, Ben Carson suggested in a Tuesday afternoon interview with CNN.

“As I was growing up, people were always trying to talk about their sexual conquests, and trying to make themselves appear, you know, like the don, you know, Casanova,” Carson said, answering a question from anchor Brianna Keilar about where he had heard similar discussions in the past. “I'm surprised you haven't heard that. I really am.”


“I haven't heard it and I know a lot of people who have not heard it,” Keilar responded. “And I think they were shocked.”

“Well, maybe that's the problem. Maybe that’s the problem,” Carson said. “You know, people have not heard this.”

“The problem is that I haven't...” Keilar followed up, trailing off as she sought clarity from Carson.

“Maybe that's the problem,” Carson repeated. “I would welcome, quite frankly, a discussion of morality in this country. I think it would be a wonderful thing if we'd bring back our Judeo-Christian values once again. I think it could do nothing but help us. I would be all in favor of that.”

Carson's recounting of his own experience mirrored that of Eric Trump, who according to the Colorado Springs Gazette, told his father's Denver, Colorado, campaign office that, “I think sometimes when guys are together they get carried away, and sometimes that’s what happens when alpha personalities are in the same presence."

The exchange between Carson and Keilar came at the end of a the retired neurosurgeon’s interview, in which he also reaffirmed his support for Trump’s candidacy by likening the presidential election to a train.

“What I'm hoping is that everybody can recognize that right now the United States is like a locomotive that's heading off the cliff,” he explained. “And the engineer has to decide, you're going to try to stop that train, or are you going to go deal with the fight in the coach car? You know? Why not stop the train, and then let's deal with the fight in the coach car.”

Asked to explain his metaphor, Carson said the “fight in the coach car” is not limited to one specific issue, nor is the train’s imminent calamity the singular fault of President Barack Obama. Instead, he said the media is too easily distracted by what he called “subterfuge” instead of focusing on more substantial issues. To that end, Carson was clear in condemning Trump’s vulgar remarks but also urged the media to move past them. Carson has followed Trump’s lead in labeling the comments “locker room talk” and suggested that anyone concerned by them should “call it whatever you need to call it to make it feel good to you.”

“I'm not sure that you can give a good enough apology for, you know, those abominable words. There just is no excuse for it. You have to apologize for it, and move on,” he said. “It doesn't excuse what was done. I think it's abominable. I don't think there's any way that you can justify it, and I don't hear anybody trying to justify it.”

Unlike Carson, who urged a return to more substantive political issues, Trump spent Tuesday celebrating the freedom that his spiraling support has afforded him. The Manhattan billionaire lashed out at House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has all but abandoned Trump, calling him “our very weak and ineffective leader” on Twitter. Later, he wrote that “Disloyal R's are far more difficult than Crooked Hillary. They come at you from all sides. They don’t know how to win - I will teach them!”

“It's probably not what I would be concentrating on right now. You know, the place where Donald Trump is going to win this election is on the issues. You're not going to win the issue on attacking people or getting into fights, quite frankly,” Carson said of Trump’s Tuesday attack plan. “Particularly when the media is not on your side. So why even go there? Why not concentrate on what two out of three Americans are concerned about, and that is the direction of our country. That's one that he can win easily.”