The host of CBS’ “Face the Nation” had a difficult time understanding Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson’s comments on the Second Amendment on Sunday, saying that Carson had “confused” Americans.
Over the course of an interview that lasted nearly six minutes, host John Dickerson spent about four minutes asking Carson questions about his position on the Second Amendment. He did not ask about Syria, the Islamic State, or Russia’s relationship with the U.S., all topics he broached in an earlier interview with Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
Instead, Dickerson honed in on passages about gun control in Carson’s new book, America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great.
“In your book, there’s a passage in which you say confiscating the guns of American citizens would violate the Constitution, as well as rendering the citizenry vulnerable to criminals and tyrants. So I want to ask you, who wants to confiscate all the guns of the American citizens?” Dickerson asked Carson.
“Well, what I’m talking about is the reason that we have a Second Amendment. … This is a book about the Constitution, and the Second Amendment is part of it,” Carson replied.
Dickerson pressed forward. “In the book it suggests, though, that there is, I just want to make sure I read this right, when you talk about confiscating the guns of Americans citizens, do you think that’s a present threat? The notion that guns would be confiscated from American citizens?”
“No,” replied Carson. “Many of the things that are in the Constitution are to prevent horrible things from happening. So they are in place to make sure people retain their liberties, and the government remains constrained.”
Dickerson rephrased his question and asked again.
“As you say in your book, you recognized the intent of the Second Amendment … is to protect the freedom of the people from an overly aggressive government. It sounds like you’re saying that the idea of an overly aggressive government that would require that kind of a resistance is a clear and present danger. Do you see it that way?”
Carson provided the same answer. “I didn’t say that it was going on right now. I think the implication is quite clear, that it is something that can happen.”
In response, Dickerson began talking about people who were “angry at the government” before rephrasing the question a third time.
“That’s what interests me, so because so many people are distrustful of the government, they’re angry at the government. … but there’s also the context in which you said the people in Germany didn’t speak up when Nazism was on the rise. I guess what I wonder is, do you think it’s that close here or is it just hyperbole to use Nazi analogies?”
Carson responded that the media was having a harder time understanding him than Americans at large.
“It’s not hyperbole at all. Whether it’s on our doorstep or whether it’s fifty years away, it’s still a concern and something we should guard against. … You know, there are a lot of people in the media who will take anything you say and try to make it into hyperbole and try to make it into a controversy. But the fact of the matter is when you talk to average American citizens, they know exactly what I’m talking about.”
Dickerson replied that the American people did not understand Carson, but were in fact “confused.”
“The extermination of an entire race, which was the Nazi goal, that’s a pretty big thing to compare our current situation to. I guess that’s what has people a little confused,” Dickerson concluded.
Carson replied curtly, “You do not want to get there.”
Carson has faced scrutiny from the media for saying that potential victims in a mass shooting should try to defend themselves, and that Jews in the Holocaust would have been better off if they had been armed.
