Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on Thursday sparred with Ben Carson, President-elect Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development, over Trump’s business ties and whether Carson could guarantee that he would not direct any monies that could benefit the president-elect.
Warren asked Carson several times during a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing if he could assure her that no taxpayer dollars he spends secretary would benefit Trump or his family.
“I can assure that the things that I do are driven by a sense of morals and values, and therefore I will absolutely not play favorites for anyone,” Carson responded. But Warren tried to pin him down, pointing to Trump’s decision not to divest his business interests, which he announced during his Wednesday press conference.
“My concern is whether or not, among the billions of dollars that you’ll be responsible for handing out in grants and loans, can you assure us that not one dollar will go to benefit either the president-elect or his family,” Warren asked.
“It will not be my intention to do anything to benefit any American, particularly,” Carson responded. “It’s for all Americans, everything that we do.”
“Do I take that to mean that you may manage programs that will significantly benefit the president-elect?” Warren followed-up.
“You can take it to mean that I will manage things in a way that benefits the American people. That is going to be the goal,” Carson said. “If there happens to be an extraordinarily good program that’s working for millions of people and it turns out that someone that you’re targeting is going to gain $10 from it, am I going to say ‘no, the rest of you Americans can’t have it?’ I think logic and common sense probably would be the best way.”
Warren told Carson that the problem overall is that he “can’t assure us” that Trump will not gain financially from any moves of his is because of the president-elect’s decision not to divest from his companies.
“This just highlights the absurdity and the danger of the president-elect’s refusal to put his assets in a true blind trust,” Warren continued. “He knows — he the president-elect knows, what will benefit him and his family financially, but the public doesn’t. Which means he can divert taxpayer money into his own pockets without anyone knowing about it.”
If Carson is confirmed by the Senate, he will replace Julian Castro as the head of the department.
