The Get with Morgan Fogarty: Dr. Ben Carson
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Dr. Ben Carson spent Monday in North Carolina, first, meeting NASCAR legend Richard Petty and then, in the evening, attending a private fundraiser in Charlotte. He spoke with WCCB News @ Ten anchor Morgan Fogarty at his SouthPark hotel before that fundraiser. Fogarty asked Carson, “Marco Rubio recently called Donald Trump’s campaign a ‘freak show.’ How would you characterize it?” Carson replied, “I would characterize it as something very beneficial to the party because he’s bringing in a lot of disaffected people.”
Trump unveiled his tax plan Monday, which promises income tax cuts for millions of Americans. Individuals who make more than $150,001 and married couples who make more than $300,001 would see their income tax rate reduced to 25% from the current top rate of 40%. Individuals who make $25,000 or less and married couples who earn $50,000 or less would pay no income tax.
Fogarty asked, “What do you think of it? What would your tax plan include?” He replied, “I like the part of it where it says we’re going to lower taxes, but I tend to be more proportional, and that is treat everyone exactly the same.” Carson continues, “You make ten dollars, you pay one dollar. You may ten billion, you pay a billion, That way you don’t introduce your own personal biases into things and you get rid of all the loopholes and deductions because by definition, loopholes and deductions, they become unfair because not everybody is eligible for them.”
A CNN interview Carson did Sunday got tongues wagging. Fogarty asked, “What do you think about what’s being made of that, that the interview was supposedly cut short, and is there any clarification you feel you need to make on your comment about a Muslim being president of the United States?” Carson says, “They (CNN) were given 8 minutes; the 8 minutes were far gone and we have other places to go and they knew that. And yet he (Jake Tapper) kept coming back, asking the same question, 600 different ways, trying to get a different answer, which he was not going to get. So what was the point? I think I made it very clear and I’ve asked people to go back and look at the transcript. Anybody, regardless of their background, if they are willing to accept American values and principles and subject their religious belief to our Constitution, I have no problem with it. I’m not sure why that is not an adequate statement.”
Fogarty also asked Dr. Carson a handful of other questions, including how he’ll handle the next GOP debate, how he would stop ISIL and how he thinks the media handled the Charleston church shooting. His answers to those questions and more can be seen here.
