The Megyn Kelly Show - Dr. Ben Carson on American Exceptionalism, Being Victors Instead of Victims, and Biden and Trump | Ep. 129

Episode Date: July 16, 2021

Megyn Kelly is joined by Dr. Ben Carson, Founder and Chairman of the American Cornerstone Institute, to talk about the truth about America and American exceptionalism, having a victor mentality instead of a victim mentality, waking up to the far left (and how to fight back), President Trump's legacy, President Biden's rhetoric, his mom and his childhood, and more.Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms:Twitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShowFind out more information at:https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow

Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations. Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show. Today, Dr. Ben Carson, one of my favorite people. I just love him. I love the way he sees America, the world, how smart he is in diagnosing our problems and our solutions. And if you actually want to hear some of his solutions, you can actually go. He's now working as the founder and chairman of American Cornerstone Institute, which is it's basically a conservative think tank providing common sense solutions to our problems. Right. They're centered around things that are important to him. Faith, liberty, community, and so on. So you can check that out. But he's going to talk about

where we are right now in this country, why we got here, some of the motivations he sees behind some of the shifts that we're dealing with, you know, when it comes to race, when it comes to education, when it comes to the media, and so on. And I think he's sort of consistent with his history as a pediatric neurosurgeon who's truly world renowned. He's a great diagnostician. So you'll love this interview. He's his good old self. And he's just a dear man. So Ben Carson in one minute. First, this. It's such a pleasure to talk to you again. What's going on? How's everything?

All kinds of things are going on. You know, we've got the American Cornerstone Institute trying to get people to look at the founding principles that really, it was no coincidence that we went from a bunch of ragtag militiamen to the pinnacle of the world record time. And, you know, looking at some of the reasons that that happened and maybe also trying to get people to recognize that we're not each other's enemies. And if we continue to act like we are, we're going to destroy ourselves. Yeah, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I worry about it too. I thought about it a lot over the July 4th holidays. I know a lot of Americans did. And you see the flags flying everywhere. And that's how we all grew up, where the one thing that would bring us together was whatever our differences, we loved being Americans. We loved the idea behind this country. Though it hasn't been executed perfectly, no one ever thought it would be. And that's all changing you know, that's why Benjamin Franklin said, you know, it was a great republic if we can keep it. Knowing what human nature is and knowing that people have a tendency to want to acquire power onto themselves and to rule other people and understanding that the eight cycles of civilization, how it has worked traditionally,

we were right to wonder whether we could keep it. And this is perhaps the most severe challenge we've had to it. So how does that, I mean, like, let's just go with that for a second. What happens if the country continues in this direction? I mean, how would it effectively end? I saw a poll the other day saying something like two out of three Southern state Republicans actually do want secession. I don't know. How does the experiment end if it ends? Well, I think it would end with

a terrible war because, you know, people there was a time when it was Democrats and Republicans. And, you know, they both wanted the same thing, but they had very different approaches to getting it. Now it's different. Now we have people who love the principles that established our nation and love the benefits of our nation versus people who don't love our nation and really would like to fundamentally change it to something else. And, you know, the first group really feels that the country is, you know, of foreign-minded people. And the second group feels that, you know, the government can handle things much better than individuals can. So it's really a severe dichotomy, but even that can be cured if people were willing to sit down and talk to each other rather than get in their respective corners and throw hand grenades. And that's what I'm dedicating my life to. That's what ACI is dedicating our lives to, is trying to get people

to actually sit down, understand what's going on. For instance, you know, when we talk about liberty, you know, America was the bastion of liberty, the representation of liberty. And some people say, well, we still have all of our liberties, But do we in fact? Just because the government, for instance, doesn't limit our freedom of speech, if it allows big tech and media to do it, it's the same deleterious effect. And that's what we have got to be able to understand. Mm-hmm. And even corporate America now cracking down by firing people for saying the wrong thing, having the wrong beliefs. Yeah, it's great that you can utter the words you want from your mouth.

You can have whatever ideas in your head, but any expression of them really could lead to catastrophic events in your life for thought crimes, really. That's what it is. No question. And the media, I'm very surprised that they go along with this, because if they know anything about history, they recognize that the first thing communist regimes do is control the media. Well, they've won that battle. They have overtaken the media, you know, the far left, and not the reasonable left at all. It's the far left who controls the people in those anchor chairs

and who run those corporations. And I've seen that firsthand, not at Fox, obviously, but at Fox is the antidote. But I think I've been thinking about it lately because you've seen, it's very in vogue now to just bash America as a unit, you you know just the idea of

america is disgusting to some people now and we saw it just this month last week when blm in utah uh issued this hateful facebook post all right the blm this is this is the same group that our state department has its flag flying the blm flag at our embassies worldwide. Okay. They're flying the BLM flag. Unbelievable. And this group comes out and says, our flag is a symbol of hate. They said, when we black Americans see this flag, we know the person flying it is not safe to be around. When we see this flag, we know the person flying it is a racist. When we see this flag, we question your intelligence. We know to avoid you. It is a symbol of hatred. So basically anybody flying the American flag is a stupid, dangerous racist, says the group whose letters were painting on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan and flying at our embassies across the world? Well, I'm going to say something that will sound very strange, but in a way, it's a good thing that these far-left groups are being so aggressive,

because I think it's waking people up. We were sort of like the frog in a saucepan being slowly cooked, and now they've turned the heat all the way up and the dogs are jumping out. And that's a good thing. That's going to save us. I really do believe that the overriding enthusiasm of the left to try to do everything that they can do very quickly is going to hurt them in the long run. I hope you're right. I mean, we're seeing it on the defunding of police from city to city. Extraordinary developments out of Minneapolis. All right. So I just looked up these stats because I thought this lawsuit was really interesting. As you know, after George Floyd killings surged in American cities, cops pulled back. They were being called racists.

They called they pulled back the murder rate in Milwaukee, nearly doubled. D.C. saw a 64 percent increase in homicides. Philly hit a 30 year high. And then there's Minneapolis, the city in which George Floyd was killed. Last year after Floyd was the second deadliest year in Minneapolis history. Number one, apparently, was 1995 when it was dubbed Murderopolis. Okay, none of those people's pictures are going to wind up on TV. No one's getting a statue like George Floyd is getting. But they all died in the wake of this narrative about police that they're awful, terrible people and the defunding of the cops. Okay, so in 2021, from January to July, just just that time frame, homicides are up 34 percent compared to the year earlier. Several children have been killed by gunfire just in recent weeks.

Six year old girl riding in a car, nine year old girl on a trampoline at a birthday party. Another six year old girl having a happy meal in her mom's car. That's three kids just in the past few weeks. So what happens there? Plaintiffs got together, city residents, and they filed a lawsuit. Just eight people. That's all it took. Filed a lawsuit and they said the city council and the mayor are not protecting us. And they cited this huge increase in shootings and homicides, as well as, by the way, the destruction of the fifth police precinct during the Floyd protests. And guess what happened? A judge ordered Minneapolis to hire more police. One of the plaintiffs said that the courts have decided that our lives are in danger.

The judge heard there are bullets coming through our homes, through our cars, through our children. And it turns out Minneapolis city charter requires a certain number of cops per resident. And that just voted unanimously in February to spend $6.4 million to rehire the police. That wasn't good enough. Now they're going to have to spend more because the court intervened thanks to these eight plaintiffs who made a difference. So to your point, people are finding ways. Well, the interesting thing is we've always had these far left, illogical people who don't do things based on facts. It's all ideology. The difference is we now have media that supports them and that rebroadcast everything that they say so that it gets people to thinking that maybe this is the norm and this is the way that people should be thinking. That's a huge problem. And I am hopeful that at some point

our mainstream media recognizes that there is a reason that the press is the only business protected by our constitution. And that is because they're supposed to disseminate unbiased information to the populace so that the people can make decisions about what their will is because the country is supposed to be run on the will of the people. But if that will is manipulated intentionally by press with their thumb on the scale, it distorts the whole system.

Yeah. And they the press controls the narrative and they have their favorites. And certainly no one on the right is in that group unless you're like a never Trumper. You know, they'll give the microphone to people they think hate Trump or sort of have meandered over on one because they love her another. Oh, you can become a celebrity quickly by doing that. That's right. Look at these guys at the Lincoln Project. These never Trumpers who claim to be Republicans, though they're clearly not. They've been associating with and protecting a pedophile whose behavior had been called

to their attention repeatedly. And they're still allowed on MSNBC to comment on our daily lives. Like, why am I listening to Steve Schmidt talk about anything? I don't want to hear from him. Tom Nichols, big, big opinion in The Atlantic this week. Why do I have to listen to this man? Get back to me when you don't cover up for criminals, then we'll chat. Well, it's pretty incredible. I mean, you look at, you know, the Hunter Biden situation. And, you know, if they can control the media and they can control the dissemination of information and they can blank out what they don't want people to see or hear, that is an incredibly powerful tool. And that's exactly what's going on.

And it is perhaps one of the most dangerous things that's happening to our country. And the question really is, are people going to be smart enough to figure out that they're being manipulated? I personally think that they are smart enough to figure it out. And I'd say that based on the fact that I do a lot of traveling. I run into a lot of people, both Democrats and Republicans and independents. And what I'm hearing is that people are waking up. I certainly hope you're right. I mean, the selective outrage machine has come for you many times. I've watched it over the years. And I feel like the one, I could cite many examples, but the one that you've spoken about before that I really think

brings it home is the comments you made in referencing, this is a few years ago, referring to slaves as immigrants. Can you just tell us that story and what happened. Yeah. Well, I was talking about the United States of America and how all of us have come here in different ways, many voluntarily, some involuntarily in the bottom of slave ships. They're all still immigrants. They still have a desire to be successful. And this is a place that allowed all of those people from all of those different places to become successful. No different than the things that Obama said. But when he says them, they're great. And when I say them, it's horrible. Right. Did you know that when they came for you? Because I can't believe I'm about to cite this person on my show. My audience knows I have real issues with this this moron and her ongoing commentary.

But Chelsea Clinton came out and says, this can't be real. Your comments, slaves were not and are not immigrants. And you've got Star Jones, who called you an Uncle Tom, called you ignorant. Samuel L. Jackson called you a mother. You know what? And went on. Right. So these are, you know, this is the brain trust responding to your comments. Meanwhile, Obama likened slaves to immigrants on at least 11 different occasions, at least 11, in far more controversial terms than you did. So did you know that at the time? No, I just, you know, same thing that I've been saying for years, that, you know, we all come from different places. But now we have the opportunity to unite under the same flag, under the same belief system and make our country strong. We do that best when we work together. That was the whole purpose

of the comment. And it has been understood by audiences across the nation for years. But all of a sudden, it's a horrible thing. Did you learn a lesson there, which is we cannot unite? That's not happening. You do not have honest brokers listening to you on the other side. Well, I absolutely refuse. As I said in the National Prayer Breakfast, I'm not politically correct. And I never will be politically correct. I'm not going to sit around and censor what I have to say based on them. I'm going to say what I have to say. And, you know, for that reason, there are many who see me as the enemy. But by the same

token, there are many who don't. And there are many who are encouraged by that because the fact of the matter is, as I say all the time, you cannot be the land of the free if you're not the home of the brave. And if you're going to sit in the corner and cower and restrict what you have to say and what you think because of others, I'm not sure you deserve to be in the land of the free. That's really good. You're right. I mean, courage is what's required right now. It's just so hard when people's jobs are on the line and their kids' school education or relationship with teachers who will pave the way for junior to get into the right college. I understand why the parents of the kids don't want to pick the fight necessarily. And why people who have jobs, they've worked very

hard to get and understand, Oh no, I'm looking around. I just happened to find myself working at Nike or Coke. And I understand very well. If I say anything, you know, against BLM or one of these groups, there's going to be a push for me to get fired and no one will have my back. I get, I get the fear. And, uh, you know, there, there comes a time when you go along to get along, but there also comes a time when if you continue to go along to get along, you won't exist anymore and you have to recognize the difference. Hmm. How do you, I mean, how, like, how do you, how do we tell the guy, you know, working for one of those companies or I don't want to pick Facebook or Google. Those are so left. You just, you know what you're getting into when you go there. But I think a

lot of people genuinely didn't understand when they took a job with Coca-Cola that they were signing up or ESPN necessarily, they were signed up to work for Black Lives Matter alternate. How do you tell them to say what they want to say? I tell them to educate yourself, to read, to learn, to observe. You don't even have to go back that far in history. You look at a place like Venezuela. I had a chance to visit there a number of times, you know, before they turned. And it was, they were wonderful visits, you know, beautiful resorts and hotels and museums and shopping areas. And the biggest controversy that people had was whether or not they were the most beautiful people in the world. That was the issue. And look where they've gone in a very short period of time. And that has happened in place after place around the world.

There are no good examples of success from a system that is completely dominated by the government. And I think we would be very smart to learn those lessons, to read about the cycles of civilization and how you finally reach a point where you're under the thumb once again after going through freedom and prosperity. And just before that stage of domination, again, is apathy and dependence. Now, isn't that what was going on in our country? Apathy. And, you know, it seems like right now the government's doing everything it can possibly do to make people dependent. And it was Khrushchev who said in the late 50s to Eisenhower, your grandchildren's children will live under communism and we won't have to fire a shot. What was he talking about? He recognized that there were

certain things that had to be done, like controlling the education system so that you could indoctrinate the kids. That's going on and has been going on for many years. They've accelerated it now. Control the media so that you could spoon feed the people only what you wanted them to know and control them in that way. Remove God and replace with government dependence and raise the national debt to enormous levels so that you could justify massive taxation, redistribution of wealth, and complete control. All of those are the things that are going on right now. The question is, can we stop them?

And I think we can. Up next, we're going to get into the Biden administration bringing back welfare. What does Ben Carson think of that, given the way he grew up? And what does he think when it comes to these government programs? Do they work? He's got a really interesting thought on what makes one a victor versus a victim. That's next. Welfare is back. The government, meaning the taxpayers, are farming out subsidies, child subsidies, of up to $300 per kid for 90% of American families. You get $250 per kid if your kid is between the ages of 7 and 17. Who's eligible? Single parents with incomes under $112,000. That's a pretty big number. Married couples with incomes up to $150,000 a year

qualify. Cost of the American people is $105 billion. And this breaks with a quarter century of policy, right? Bill Clinton signed the bill to end welfare. And now we're reversing that. Marco Rubio came out and said that this is no work is required. And this resurrects the welfare system that failed first time around. You know, it's quote free money, he says, for criminals and addicts. But it is definitely an anti-work welfare check, which is something that we eschewed because it had failed to help the very families it was most directed at. Well, it's not free money, for one thing. And for another thing, I can guarantee you they have plenty of social scientists, political scientists and statisticians sitting around saying,

what number do we have to put it at so that we get the most people to think that they benefit from it, so that they will be on our side. They care nothing about what really happens to those individuals. What they care about is putting out a carrot that is so tempting to millions of people that they will forego any thought about what happens for the good of the nation and just think about what's good for them in the short run, not even thinking about what's good for their children and their grandchildren in the long run, because they're the ones who are going to have to pay the burden. Why would the politicians do that? Short-term power. It's totally about power, particularly for the far left.

And it leaves a lot of very good Democrats in a real quandary, because I think they don't really want any part of that. And yet, you know, the Republican Party, the alternative, has been demonized to the point where they say, well, we certainly can't be with those people. So I guess by default, we have to be the adult in the room and stop doing things that are just politically motivated and start doing things. You don't think it's bleeding heart, right? You think it's politically motivated power. It gets votes. That's for sure. But you don't think it's bleeding heart because what we see like the New York Times, its article said, hey, look at Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy. They say it's going to cut child poverty by 45 percent. That's a reduction four times greater than ever achieved in a single year. We're going to help poor kids.

That's why they say this is necessary. Yeah. If you really want to help poor kids, give them the right kind of education. Why is it that in cities like Baltimore, you have so few people who graduate who actually have proficiency in math or even in the English language when expressing themselves? Why don't they spend the necessary resources in order to alleviate that situation. You can take anyone from the worst economic situations there are, and you can give them a good education, and they will achieve. They will do well. And just look at the Nigerians in this country. That demographic is either number one or very close to number one in terms of per capita income. Now, why is that? If you know any Nigerians, you know that for them,

the baseline is a bachelor's degree. They really concentrate on education. And that also gives lie to whether this is a systemically racist country, because how could one of the groups with the highest income be black in a systemically racist country? Doesn't make any sense. of it's different. You can't compare black immigrants to black Americans who are born with the weight of American history on race baked into their family experience and the way they perceive the world and the way the world perceives them, right? Like they are the descendants or some are the descendants of slaves. That legacy is, you know, around their necks like an albatross in a way it's not for the Nigerian immigrant. Well, you know, the whole purpose of some of their teachings, like the 1619 project, is to make whites feel guilty and to make blacks feel like victims. You're a victim, no matter what, and no matter what you do.

And, of course, you know, my mother totally rejected that. My mother is probably the wisest person that I've ever met. And she had less than a third grade education. But she refused to be a victim. She wouldn't let us be a victim. And she would say, yeah, there may be some racist people. There may be some obstacles, but you don't have to let that stop you. Only if you want to let it stop you, it will stop you.

And you find ways to get over those hurdles or under them or around them or through them. And each hurdle strengthens you for the next one. If you take somebody who has a victor's attitude and you take everything from them and you put them on the street, they'll find a way back up to the top. You take somebody who has a victim's mentality and you put them on the top and they'll find their way to the bottom. It's the attitude. And I just find it so discouraging to see people putting everything on race, on external characteristics that people cannot change. You know, the Bible says in 1 Samuel 16, 7, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. And what is that saying? It's saying exactly the same thing that Dr. King dreamed about, that people would be judged on the content

of their character and not the color of their skin. Can we talk about your mom? Because people may not know that, I mentioned it the other day, but you launched your, your presidential campaign really on the Kelly file. We did that long bio on you. We had an exclusive with you that it was great. It was a huge night. We loved it. And our audience loved it. The ratings completely spiked every day. They were hugely your corner. And your backstory is, it's amazing on many levels, just objectively, but also because it really puts the lie to some of the things that the left says about America and the impossibility of succeeding. And they would absolutely love to take away from you the struggles that you had, but they can't, they can't. So you grew up in inner city Detroit and went to Boston for a bit. But let's talk about your background. Go ahead a movie about you. Yeah.

But when saying exactly the same things, it became clear that I was conservative. Oh, he's horrible. He's Uncle Tom. How could he say such horrible things? It's incredible. But the hypocrisy on that side is amazing. But my wife and I, we thank God all the time that we were born in this country. I've visited 68 countries. We lived overseas.

And what an amazing place this is. It doesn't mean that everybody's born under good circumstances. We're not. And after my parents were divorced, things were pretty rough for us because my mother had very little in the way of education and skills. We didn't even have a place to live and some relatives in Boston took us there.

And it wasn't a pleasant place by any stretch of the imagination. Large multifamily dwellings were boarded up windows and doors and sirens and gangs, murders. Both of my older cousins were killed. I saw that kind of stuff as a youngster growing up. And I remember as a nine-year-old sitting on the ghetto stairs, looking through the building across the street, through which a light beam was shining because all the windows were broken out. It was an abandoned building.

And that light beam made me think about my future. And I remember thinking that I would probably not live to be more than 25 at most, because that's what I saw around me. And you always had people talking about the system and how it was against you. And in those days, it probably really was. But my mother never joined into those conversations. She was always talking about what you could do. And she wanted to get back on her own feet. And after a couple of years, we were able to go back to Detroit, still in a multifamily dwelling,

still with significant poverty. But the interesting thing is, I was, we lived right at the railroad tracks, and the railroad tracks divided blacks from the whites. But we lived on the white side of the railroad tracks, so I went to a white elementary school. And it was very interesting because I was a terrible student. I mean, I was the worst student of everything.

But it was sort of like the teachers expected that. And I remember when I finally got glasses, they were doing, you know, visual checks on everybody. I didn't know that anybody could see. But once I got glasses, I could actually see the board. It's like a revelation. And I went from an F student to a D student, and I was thrilled. My mother was terrified, but I was thrilled. But then she made us start reading books, and that just really changed our lives.

I didn't like reading books.. I didn't like reading books. I just didn't like reading books. I wanted to watch TV. I love this part of the story. I love this. Before we get to that, I just want to set one thing up about your mom because what an extraordinary figure. Your mom married your dad when she was just 13

and he was 28. You know that's not going to wind up particularly well. It's not going to work out very well. You just know it. What she couldn't have know, that's not going to wind up particularly well. It's not going to work out very well. You just know it. But what she couldn't have predicted was that she was going to find out when you were a little boy that he was a bigamist. He had a whole other family that she didn't know about. Where were they? Were they in the same town? They were in Detroit. So they were. So how did you, how did you, how were they discovered? How were they not discovered, I guess, for, for all that, all those years? Well, uh, you know, occasionally when I was

a kid, I remember, you know, we would drive over to another side of the town and he would visit people. I didn't know at that point that that was his other family. Um, Oh, so you met your half siblings not knowing that you were related to them? Correct. Correct. But, you know, stranger things have been known to happen. But obviously, you know, when my mother discovered that, that was just devastating to her, if you can imagine. And, you know, she had some severe bouts of depression, even trying to commit suicide. It's hard to even think about what she had to go through.

You can understand how she might be bitter. Yeah, particularly because she wouldn't pay child support. She's trying with everything she's got to keep us afloat. But at any rate, when we moved back to Detroit, the thing that really she remembered was that all these homes that she cleaned as a domestic, beautiful homes in Grosse Pointe and places where people had a lot of money,

that they did a lot of reading. And she said, you know, I think that has something to do with their success. And she made us start reading books. And we hated it in the beginning. But it didn't take long before we began to really love reading books. Because what do you have to do when you're reading? You have to take those letters and you have to make them into words so you learn how to spell you can always tell somebody who reads because they know how to

spell and then you have to take those words and make them into sentences so they learn grammar and syntax you have to take those sentences and you have to make them into ideas. So you learn how to use your imagination. People who read a lot tend to be a lot more creative and imaginative than people who just sit around and look at what somebody else has done. And that made an enormous difference. I went from a failing student to the top of the class over the course of a year and a half. And, you know,

to tell you how much things have changed. Now, I remember when I was in the eighth grade at Wilson Junior High School, still one of the very few black students there. They would give an award for the highest academic achievement. And I was taking my report card around to all the teachers. I got an A on everything. I was going to be it. I got to the last class and it was band. And I was really good in band, so I knew that was going to be an A. But the guy gave me a C. He wanted to ruin my report card and make sure I didn't become the awardee. But it turns out that band didn't count, so I got the award anyway. Nice.

But at the student assembly, all the parents and everybody there, when I was getting the award, one of the teachers got up and chewed out all the white kids and said, you should be ashamed of yourself. How could you let this boy be better than you are? Academically, you're not trying hard enough. But back in those days, people actually believed stuff like that. Yeah. I can't imagine how infuriating that must have been. Well, it just made me determined. I said, I'll show her. My mother was very disgruntled, as you might imagine. But the other kids, they were all looking at me, and they were rolling their eyes and making the crazy sign and pointing to that teacher.

Because, you know, these kids all knew me. They knew me from the fifth grade when I was the dumbest. They saw the rise. They respected what I had done. They knew it was legit. And can you tell us, because I love that she made you read two books a week, you and your brother, and she made you write book reports. But what you didn't know back then about your mom, it's just one of the sweetest part of the stories. Can you tell us?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we didn't know that she couldn't read the reports. But she would take her markers and she would put little check marks and underlines and make us think that she was reading them, but she really wasn't. But interestingly enough, you know, my mother did go back to school and she got her GED the same year that I graduated from high school. And then she subsequently went on to college. And in 1994, she got an honorary doctorate degree. So she was Dr. Carson too. That's awesome. People didn't know whether, you know, what, what's she doing with you?

Is she sending you to the right school? Is she doing the right thing with you and your brother? And why, I mean, we haven't gotten into your background or your brother, but can you tell us how'd that work out? Well, he did very well. He, you know, we had the lottery at that time for military service. I got a very high number. I was like 333. So I would say, but he got a real low number, like 14. So he said, well, I'm obviously going to have to go, so I'll choose the area I want to go into. So he chose the Navy. And he was on the track to become a nuclear atomic submarine operator. But he subsequently changed his mind, decided he wanted to be an engineer. And when he came out, went to the University of Michigan, got his engineering degree, did some subsequent degree work, and became a mechanical and aeronautical engineer. And so he became the rocket scientist and I became the brain surgeon.

And, you know, my mother's friends were always criticizing her and telling her that her boys would grow up and hate her. She made them, you know, read and study. But I think she got the last laugh. It's so great. I know. And back when everybody loved you on the left and the people who make movies, your historic career as a pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins of all places, you were the youngest. I was actually just looking at this. I didn't realize this piece of it. You were the youngest ever chief of pediatric surgery in the United States, age 33. You were a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in neurosurgery, in oncology, in plastic surgery and pediatrics. And in 1987, you participated in the first reported separation of conjoined twins, joined at the back of the head, took 22 hours, 70 member surgical team and on it goes.

And that is what led to Gifted Hands, right? The Ben Carson story. So Cuba Gooding played you in the movie years later in 2009, I guess it was. But that was before you came out as conservative and completely ruined your relationship with the people who make movies. Dr. Carson clearly did not wind up being important to you. So one of the things I wondered about you, oh wait, no, before we get to that, I cannot leave your background without talking about the poem. We talked about the Kelly file many times. I've already read it on the show, just FYI. That's how much your mom's favorite poem impacted me.

But this, this is the difference. It's this attitude that you're talking about. It's by Mamie White Miller. And you're the one who introduced this to me. And now it's introduced to my kids, too. We've got it hanging on our wall at our home. Oh, wonderful. Oh, thanks to you. Thanks to you. I love everything about it. So I've got it in front of me. I'll read it. If things go bad for you and make you a bit ashamed, often you will find out you have yourself to blame. Swiftly, we ran to mischief and then the bad luck came. Why do we fault others? We have ourselves to blame. Swiftly we ran to mischief, and then the bad luck came. Why do we fault others? We have ourselves to blame. Whatever happens to us, here are the words we say. Had it not been for so-and-so, things wouldn't have gone that way. And if you are short of friends, I'll

tell you what to do. Make an examination. You'll find the faults in you. You're the captain of your ship. So agree with the same. If you travel downward, you have yourself to blame. I love it. Absolutely. It's so wonderful. And, you know, we were so tired of hearing that poem because it would come out of my mouth, my mother's mouth, every time we made an excuse, we just stopped making excuses. You're the captain of your ship. It's just empowering, right? It's another way of saying, you know, you have yourself to blame is you are empowered to make your life amazing. No matter what you were born into, no matter what the systems are, no matter how imperfect the union, you're the captain of your ship. And it's so different than what we're telling so many young people today. Somebody else is in

control of your life. Somebody else is creating your problems. Somebody else can give you success. And the fact of the matter is, the person who has the most to do with what happens to you is you and the attitude that you have. And, you know, the can-do attitude is one of the things that made America great. The what can you do for me attitude is the thing that made a lot of nations fall. And we're in the process of switching one for the other. And we have to resist that with everything we have. There is truth to American exceptionalism. And, you know, it saved the world during World War II. Think about it. But, you know, it's such a different message.

You were so lucky to be born to that mom because I've been following this guy, Elie Mistal. He's the justice correspondent for The Nation, which is, you know, far left magazine, but this is a guy, Victor Davis Hanson was on the show not long ago, pointing out that this guy has written, he envisions his life someday, he hopes as quote, whiteness free. So Ellie Mustal, this is what he wrote. This is just this week. It was in realclearpolitics.com a couple of days ago, highlighted there. They link editorials, as you know, from the left and the right. And the premise of his piece is blacks are losing the fight against white rage. And just listen to the way he sees America. Okay. And the difference that his kid in messaging that his kids getting versus to what your mom gave you. He writes, my black

generation is doing everything we can think of to stop this onslaught of white rage. He's upset about the voting laws being passed in places like Texas, but we are losing primarily because of the mass of white Americans has become inured to shame. White people still have a stranglehold on national political power in this country. Despite all the protest and activism my generation can muster, there is no bevy of new civil rights legislation. And he goes on to say this. My eight year old told me he wants to be a scientist. I told him that Albert Einstein's greatest insight was recognizing when to get out of Nazi Germany before the fascists could kill him and that he

might have to flee America one day too. Half of the time, I feel like my parenting inspiration is Sarah Connor in Terminator 2. I'm training my kids to survive post-democracy and post-climate disaster America. Oh my God. I mean, these people, I don't know where they come up with all this stuff, but they want to concentrate on anything that's negative and bad and that's scary, rather than all the positive things. You know, you go back to how they want to revolve everything in this nation around slavery and say that, you know, we're the most evil empire ever because of slavery. But why not tell the truth? The truth is that slavery has been a part of human society since there have been human societies, that there are actually more slaves in the world today than there were in 1863 when the Emancipation Proclamation was put forth,

and that we are the nation that actually fought a civil war at great personal cost to get rid of slavery. So you can look at it that way, or you can say, we had slavery, and we're the worst people that ever existed. And they just go on and on with this absolute absurdity. And it's very necessary that those of us who know better don't remain silent. We have to talk about it. We have to make sure that people know what the real facts are. And then let's debate it. You know, very seldom have I been able to engage in a debate with someone from the far left before they quickly degenerate into calling you names because they don't have very good arguments. to black Americans who may or may not have any connection to slaves paid for by all Americans who may or may not have any connection to people who supported slavery, that we pay zero attention

to the countries where slavery is ongoing. I mean, if everybody here cares so much about slavery, why don't we do something about it in present day America? This is a point you were making recently. Absolutely. I mean, we have so many young people now who are being trapped into sex slavery, who are coming across our southern border. I mean, they're sitting ducks and they're just picking them off. And the lives that they put them through, it is just horrible. There's a movie that's coming out in January called The Sound of Freedom. Jim Caviezel is the starring role. It's outstanding.

And I hope it gets very wide play so that people really understand what's going on, in many cases, right under our noses. And it couldn't happen, all this sexual slavery, if there weren't an appetite for it. And the place where it seems to be having the biggest effect is right here in the United States. Why do we have so many people with an appetite for abusing sexually innocent little children? What is happening to us? What's happening to our faith? And that Judeo-Christian value system that taught us love and respect for those around us. And as we are throwing away our faith, we're becoming very coarse and cruel individuals. Our new faith is in the Kardashians and ourselves, right? That's really what it is, that selfie generation and that, you know, just more posts about yourself. And no matter how good you have it, you could, you could become a princess in a castle,

literally and still feel that you are a victim. Exactly. Very sad, but true. So Dr. Carson came under attack by Charlemagne recently, and it was because of his comments on it was actually at CPAC on welfare and sort of how it hasn't been particularly helpful to the black family and how it was faith and strong family that got black Americans through a lot of their past problems from Jim Crow and segregation to even slavery. Well, that set off some criticism and we'll get into that in one second. But before we get to that, we want to bring you a feature that we have here on the MK show called thanks, but no thanks. Today we are saying thanks, but no thanks to our old friend, Dr. Anthony Fauci. What is the COVID doctor up to these days?

Well, earlier this week, he was on MSNBC where he was asked about the Delta variant. Delta. If I had music, I would add in dun, dun, dun, right? Because now they just try to scare us to death with every new variant as though it's the end times when each one pops up. So he was asked about the Delta variant and children. Listen, you know, the children under the age of 12 who are not eligible for the vaccines generally do not get sick, don't get COVID or don't get as ill with it. But what does this spread of the Delta variant mean for them, for the children under the age of 12? And what's the timeline for when they might become eligible?

Well, a couple of questions, and the answers are the children who are not able to get vaccinated because of their age should follow, their parents should follow with them the guidelines of the CDC that unvaccinated children of a certain age greater than two years old should be wearing masks. No doubt about that. That's the way to protect them from getting infected, because if they do, they can then spread the infection to someone else. Children older than two should be wearing masks until you can force upon them a vaccine that doesn't have long-term FDA approval. This is obscene. Fauci says there's no doubt about it. That's what you need to be doing if you want to be a good parent to keep your child safe. Well, thankfully, there

is some sanity out there in the world, like Martin Kulldorff. Do you remember him? He was one of the great Barrington Declaration doctors who came on this very show a few months ago to warn about the dangers of lockdowns and other measures that he and his co-authors have been exactly right about. Well, he fact-checked Fauci on Twitter this week, writing, there is, quote, no scientific evidence that masking children is effective. May I repeat, there is, quote, no scientific evidence that masking children is effective, quote, that children have low disease risk, minuscule mortality risk. And he went on to say they do not transmit much and that when adults are vaccinated, there is no, no reason to put masks on children.

OK, with the fall fast approaching now, there's going to be another showdown with the teachers unions and with COVID extremists like Fauci over all of this in our schools. You know, your head of school, your principal, they're coming for your kid. They're going to have to mask him up to do everything. Or they're going to force you to stick a needle in his arm if he's age eligible, which they may be by the fall because they're testing these vaccines on babies, babies through 12-year-olds right now. They're really trying to make it for September. Thanks, but no thanks to that too. And for now, Fauci, who's saying we have to mask our three-year-olds, he can take our thanks, but no thanks. And now back to a real doctor, Dr. Ben Carson, after this. You went to CPAC in July and you made a comment that you referenced slavery and you referenced the problem with welfare.

You know, we've had many guests on this show talking about how the welfare, the big welfare programs of the Great Society really hurt black families. It really set black families on a path that was that was doing it was on the right trajectory to where we are now with fatherless homes and lack of home ownership and dependence on big government that will not take care of them. Anyway, so you make comments to that effect. And, you know, Charlemagne, have you heard of Charlemagne, the God? Yeah, That's how he calls it. Yeah. So he came for you. And he's a big figure within the Black community and very popular. His show is. And he had a few choice words for you.

So I would love to get your thoughts on what and his reaction to your comments, if you don't mind. I'll cut it about a minute. Sure. Here he is. I just hear things like this and say to myself, why do people always try to find a bright side to slavery? What's the point? Okay. Family, you say, Dr. Ben Carson, family. Dr. Ben Carson, do you know that slave labor for a slave owner took precedence over an enslaved person's personal needs, including family? Enslaved people worked all day early in the morning until late at night. A father most times lived several miles away on a whole other plantation than his family

and probably only got to see his family a couple times a week. And that is only if he was close enough to see his family. Yes, this is why I don't care if it's critical race theory, the 1619 Project, whatever. The history of black people in this country has to be taught and it has to be taught honestly because you have guys like Dr. Ben Carson out here attempting to revise history and I don't understand why. Tell the truth, shame

the white devil. Stop trying to make America something it's not. We can't hear what we don't reveal. We keep trying to come up with solutions for America's sins but we won't ever get there if we don't acknowledge the problems. Please let Remy Ma give Dr. Ben Carson the biggest hee-haw. Hee-haw, hee-haw, you stupid mother******, you dumb.

That's not nice. That's what they do. It's like apparently an ongoing gig, Donkey of the Day Award. The sad part is that they completely missed what I was saying. What I was saying was that the black families were able to survive all of this horrible thing because they had strong family units, because they had faith in God. And that was during slavery. That was during the Jim Crow era. That was during segregation and discrimination.

But what's happened now is we've put policies in place that have broken up the family and that have moved fathers out of the picture. And as a result of that, along with moving away from our faith-based, we've become much more vulnerable. They completely missed what I was saying, because they're so anxious. He went on, in the long version, he was like, don't you know that enslaved mothers and fathers were in constant fear their children might be sold away? And that people went to slave auctions, said that you'd see babies, you know, ripped from their screaming mothers and sold off. And don't talk to me about the value of family during slavery. That's what he was saying.

Yeah, well, again, completely missing it, intentionally wanting to miss it, I think, because, you know, if they actually listen to what I'm saying, and also look at the statistics of what happens when you don't have a father in the home, when you have broken families, when you don't have the kind of relationships that give you an anchor. And, you know, look at the Brookings Institute study on poverty, which said there are a few things that you can do that will reduce your likelihood of living in poverty to 2% to 3% or less. Number one, finish high school.

The importance of education, which we've talked about already. Number two, get married. Again, establishing that family. Number three, wait until you're married to have children. Do that planning, have that financial background, and get a job. Just do those things. Less than a 2% to 3% chance of living in poverty in this country. What do you think on the Biden policy of $300 per kid, at least 0 through 6, and $250 for 7 through 17? Do you think there's a risk that that's going to lead to people actually being more careless about birth control, maybe even having children.

Because if you have, you know, if you've got three kids, that's 800. Well, wait, I'm going to do my math. That's $900 a month from the government. That's pretty good. If you've got five kids and on it goes, like you can actually run those numbers up per child in a way that's creates potentially a disincentive even to work in a, in a country in which we already have that thanks to those extended unemployment benefits that are already keeping people home. I mean, I don't, I can't

imagine you'd have a child just to get the money, but I've read the studies that said that did happen when we were doing this before. Well, what we saw during the previous administration, removing a lot of the regulatory barriers, appropriate tax incentives so that people were incentivized to create jobs, to create new businesses. We saw the lowest unemployment numbers for blacks in history, for Hispanics as well, for Asian Americans, record lows for women. The point being, if you have a rising tide, it floats all boats. You have to have the right kinds of policies. And just giving money to people is not the right kind of policy, particularly if it's money that you don't have, because all that does is raise the federal debt even higher, which creates a more significant problem in the future. These are not hard economic issues. You don't have to be super smart to figure this out.

And you don't have to be super smart to look back historically and see what the effects of just giving away money has been. You know, since Johnson's Great Society program, look what's happened. And, you know, I used to think LBJ was a pretty terrific person before I really looked into the background. And now, particularly when he said, if you give these folks referring to black people, you know, certain things, you'll have their vote for the next 200 years. Just total direct manipulation. And it's still going on. Appreciate the honesty. I appreciate them lifting the dress up and just being honest about what the goal is, because you're right, it gives you a totally different look on him.

You know, I have to ask you, though, talking about the debt, Republicans, conservatives, during my entire time on Fox News were railing about it and didn't want big government spending. And then they kind of lost their their voice when Trump took over. And he ranks as the third biggest increaser relative to the size of the economy of any U.S. presidential administration when it comes to the debt that we had. He rose it by almost seven point eight trillion. It was almost a 40 percent drop to jump from when he came in, where it was about 20 trillion to when he left, which is almost 28 trillion. So what about Trump's spending? Well, there was it was it was necessary in order to beef up the military.

But I always felt that, yes, we needed to beef up the military, but you had to take it from somewhere else, not just keep increasing the number. And, you know, there is plenty of waste in government. As a cabinet secretary, I was able to see it not only in my agency, but in multiple agencies and various entities across government. And if we really want to be smart, we'll get serious about cutting down on those wastes because that costs the taxpayers. And it's just simply not necessary. And you probably remember when I was running for president, I had some things that people thought were pretty radical.

But it always meant that there was give and take, and you never increased what you were spending. You always shifted something around. You decided what was important. And I said, I like the whole idea of tithing. God said, give me a tenth. And that makes you live within your means. But if I can spend whatever I want with the knowledge that you'll have to pay for it, it changes the way that I do things. Somebody, unfortunately, has to pay the tab.

It's so funny because I feel like I'm not very good at budgeting. I never have been. Didn't matter how much money I made, whether I was poor or had money. I was just kind of, I've always been somebody who just kind of spends what I have. Now I don't, but I haven't been very careful on budgeting. And we're buying a new house and we're moving. And the designer, you know, the decorator, whenever he goes over the money that it's going to take to buy this couch or the other thing, he looks at my husband and he stopped and he looked at me and he said, I'm not looking at Doug, just FYI, because he's the man and you're the woman. I'm looking at him because he seems to care about the budget.

We all laugh because they're exactly right. My approach to the, to the budget on the house decorating has been YOLO, right? Which stands for you only live once. So I've been removed from the process. And I'm sorry to say, I think this administration and the last one the last administration spent so much that they don't have to have any restraints whatsoever. Yes, and the Republicans can't say anything because they were afraid to criticize Trump. Right. Trump is not infallible by any stretch of the imagination. I think he was a terrific president, had some very, very good ideals about how to do things.

Personality-wise, I think he and I are probably polar opposites. That's so true. But, you know, forget about the personality. There's so many people who get hung up on the personality. But what we really need are the results. That's what Glenn Lowry was on my show, and he's making great points about Trump saying Trump is just an avatar. You know, like you can't you don't need to get that hung up on the form in which he comes. You can you can look at the results, you can look at the policies and try your level best to avoid the tweets and so on. I do think, you know, that that became impossible after the actual election when he continued to say he won, even after all of his election challenges had been denied and, you know, his legal process had run out. And, you know, that's why people got so upset about that. Well, that's one of the reasons about the January 6th riot is like he didn't foment it exactly with his words right beforehand, but he'd been fomenting it since the vote in early November. And, you know, that's when he's more than an avatar. That's when he is a problem with which you must deal. And you can see the deleterious effects on our society.

There's no question that things have deteriorated significantly. Our danger is not as much from China and Russia and Iran and North Korea as it is from ourselves. And the destruction that will come because a house divided against itself cannot stand. And there's plenty of blame to go around on both sides. Yes, 100%. You know, we need to learn, for instance, that there were so many irregularities in the 2020 election. We have to fix that.

We have to give people confidence in our electoral process. And if we don't, that's going to go a long way toward destroying us. You'll get no pushback from me on that. But, you know, I'm somebody, I didn't work for Trump. I'm a journalist and a pundit, so I think I can see it clearly. I do think he was really irresponsible in his rhetoric. You know, Mike Pence did not have the ability to overturn that election. That was not true. He misled a lot of his earnest followers on it and they got confused.

I do think his messaging is partly to blame for what happened at the Capitol that day. I mean, I didn't I never really saw what you said about that. I know some people left the cabinet. I kind of thought that was spineless. It's like you work for him or you don't. You know who he is or you don't. Like, come on, don't try to leave him at the last minute. But what did you think about that,

about his rhetoric after the November election? Well, you know, I probably would have handled it a little bit differently. I simply would have insisted that the data be looked at in an objective and open way, as opposed to saying, if you even talk about this, you're a horrible person. I would have just made that the central theme and left it at that. You know, in terms of whether he incited rioting, you know, investigations were demonstrated. I wouldn't use that word. I would say, you know, his rhetoric and his messaging were in part to blame for what was in those people's heads that day. But investigations have shown that there were a number of people and groups that were planning

some pretty horrendous things that day. I don't care what he would have said. I think they would have gone ahead with their plan. And it's also not known by many that Trump recommended that they bring in 10,000 National Guard troops because he knew how big that crowd was going to be. And, you know, the powers at the House said, no, that won't have the right look. Well, does it have a does it have a better look? Have people rioting and tearing the place up? I don't think so. It's also unseemly, right? Like the,

I've talked about it this week, just what happened on January 6th. And I do not think that the media's handling of that event is anything to be admired. I think they ought to be ashamed of themselves for comparing it to 9-11. It was nowhere near, nowhere near that. But so irresponsible to even say that. Then they continue to the Huffington post, the Washington post, ABC, NBC, MSNBC. I could go on, have all allowed that kind of statement to be said on their air and in their publications about January 6th, that it's comparing it to nine 1111 or saying it's worse than 9-11. And even Joe Biden, even Joe Biden has called January 6th the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. So even he is saying worse, worse than 9-11, worse than Pearl Harbor. And then he goes out. Here's a soundbite just from Tuesday.

And I don't think this is true, Ben. I got to tell you, listen to what he said. This is his claim about what world leaders said to him when he was in Europe for the G7 and NATO. Listen. The violence and the deadly insurrection on the Capitol on January 6th. I just got back from Europe, speaking to the G7 and the NATO. They wonder, not a joke, they wonder, Gov. They ask me, is it going to be okay? The citadel of democracy in the world, is it going to be okay? Who? Who specifically? Name names.

It's pretty unbelievable, but that's what I expect now, because there are certain agendas and ideological principles that must be conformed to and everything must be interpreted in light of those ideological constructs. So that's what I expect from most of the mainstream media today. Doesn't surprise me in the slightest. It's unfortunate. Our world leaders are saying like, is the citadel of democracy going to be? No, they didn't. I don't believe it's not like it's hard to believe that maybe like an Angela Merkel might have asked it, but I just don't.

This is rhetorical flair. I think that the rest of the world, quite frankly, is probably sitting back and having a good belly laugh right now, looking at some of the things that we're doing in this country, looking at the fact that we're going through all this stuff, for instance, about, you know. Transgender men playing in women's sports. Give me a break. I mean, it's almost as if we've lost our minds. I'm hopeful that we will regain them shortly. But I want you to think about a child. What would it be like to be a little child growing up in today's society? First of all, you got to wear a mask so

you don't get a chance to look at people's facial expressions and correlate those with what they're saying. That's a big part of sociological development. And then you're told you may be carrying some deadly disease and you may give it to your grandmother and she may die even though you may be okay. And unfortunately, a lot of grandmothers do die. And now you're thinking you're guilty. You caused it. And if you're white, you caused all the problems in our society, you and your parents and your grandparents and all of your ancestors. And if you're black or some other minority, somebody else has their foot on your neck, and you're just a victim in this society and people owe you all kinds of things.

And then if all of that hasn't negatively impacted your self-image, now you're told if you're a boy, you may not really be a boy. If you're a girl, you may not really be a girl. How in the world are they supposed to grow up and be normal individuals? I wonder. It's child abuse. It is child abuse. I've been saying the same thing. Critical race theory is child abuse. This messaging on the trans stuff, beyond non-bullying and support and kindness, which I support, all this stuff about your gender's fluid and you can decide on Wednesday it may be different than it was on Tuesday is abusive. It isn't true and it's abusive. I saw a truck last week. Candy and I were driving and it was one of those big muscle

trucks with all the big exhaust and the big wheels. And on the back it said, I identify as a Prius. That was pretty funny. Don't leave me now. We got more coming up in 60 seconds. I'm curious because you say we do need to ensure free and fair elections in the country. Just make sure people have confidence. We loosened the standards in the year of COVID on voting. No question.

That's why we did like drive through voting. That's one of the things they're trying to get rid of COVID on voting. No question. That's why we did like drive through voting. That's one of the things they're trying to get rid of now in Texas. I mean, we we made it a lot easier for folks to stay at home and vote, mail in and so on. Now we're going back to normal. And a lot of states are trying to tighten up the voting laws. Well, that's what led all these Texas state lawmakers, Democrats, to flee their own state. They fled because they need to prevent a quorum so that no vote on this law can be held on this bill because they know they're going to lose. So they decided to leave. And by the way, nothing says we are fighting for the little people like jetting off on a private jet. And by the way, preventing votes, not just

on this, but on hikes for teachers' salaries and lowering property taxes. I'm sure they're really resonating with the locals in Texas. I'm sure they're not taking their per diem allocation, right? Yeah, exactly. I think they want donations to help them with the hotel minibar. So here they are. Just take a listen to them. We will overcome. We will T. Oh, boy. I do feel for some of them. I mean, some of them are really sincere people.

They just don't realize they're being used. Interesting. It's very sad. By whom? By those who want to fundamentally change this nation, by people who want to fundamentally change our voting laws in order to basically make it a one party country so that they can carry out all of their ideological mischievous ideas. You know, Biden said that the January 6th riot was the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. Well, that didn't last long because now he says these voting rights laws, these are the most significant test of our democracy. So everything's the most significant since the Civil War. Just wait another week and the Republicans will test it worse than they ever have.

Here's this is our first soundbite for our for Natasha. Listen, listen to him on these voting laws. We're facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War. That's not hyperbole. Since the Civil War. The Confederates back then never breached the Capitol as insurrectionists did on January the 6th. I'm not saying this to alarm you. I'm saying this because you should be alarmed. I love that, Les.

What? I'm not trying to alarm you, but you should be alarmed. Be very alarmed. Exactly. I know. But he was talking about the voting laws there. He's tying the voting laws with January 6th and a huge assault on democracy. Well, it's funny that I didn't hear any of that kind of rhetoric last summer when over $2 billion worth of damage was done

to people's property and dozens of lives were lost. Why don't we hear that kind of rhetoric in that situation? Aren't those things just as devastating? Or is it only when the lawmakers feel threatened that there's a problem? Do they not care about anybody else? Why is it that Black Lives Matter is so concerned when you have a Black person who is unarmed, killed by a white policeman. But all of those black lives in Chicago every weekend, they just get passing mention. Why is that? Does that really make a lot of sense? I want people to actually start engaging those huge frontal lobes that God gave us and start analyzing these things and seeing what things make sense and what things don't make sense.

And in what ways are they being manipulated? And I think if people actually stopped and started thinking about that, most people are smart enough to figure this out, but they just go along with what they hear on some of the social media or on some of the cable stations without analyzing it themselves. What you have to recognize is that people are quite different from animals. If you look at an animal's brain, you'll see a very enlarged midbrain. Midbrain is where you do a lot of reacting. And that's why animals are so good at reacting. You know, they observe things and they react to them. People, on the other hand, have relatively smaller midbrains, but very large frontal lobes. Frontal lobes are where you engage in active processing of information and really coming up with solutions. People are supposed to be able to do

that. Animals don't do that. So why would people act like animals and just react to external visualized stimulus, like a person's skin color, as opposed to delving more deeply into how that person is based on their character. It's always fun when I get reminded of your history as a brain surgeon. And just your comment on that reminds me, I've been dying to ask you this question. Having been at the very, very top of medicine, I mean, completely beloved, renowned, just, you know, one of our greatest gifts, and then traveled into presidential politics, not just conservatism, but presidential politics, working for Trump, you know, considered the devil by many on the left. Any regrets? You know, is there ever a

time where you say, I wish I had stayed just cutting open people's skulls and fixing problems in that department as opposed to for the country at large? Not really. There are those of us who are going to have to fight for this country if we're going to save it. And also, you know, I have deep, deep faith in God. And Jesus said, you know, if you do things that I do, if you do what's right instead of what's popular, you're going to be persecuted. He said that. I knew that when I got into the field. But you know, against the backdrop of eternity, whatever you suffer in this life is nothing. And you really have to be able to look at the

big picture here. Well said, as usual. It's so good to reconnect with you again. I've missed talking to you. Oh, I've missed talking to you too. It's been a lot of fun. And I wish you the best in the future. You're still a very young person and you don't know what's going to happen.

So are you. You're only 69. Hey, by today's presidential standards, you could run in 2028. No, thank you. You're only 69. Hey, by today's presidential standards, you could run in 2028. No, thank you. Well, I'll continue watching and hoping. I would like to just mention before we leave that I encourage people to go to AmericanCornerstone.org and look at what we're doing. You'll see a lot of conversations that we've had, a lot of information, a lot of op-eds,

really talking about the major issues that face us as a society today. I think it's a great idea. And I love your Little Patriots project too, trying to get the littles educated on the real history of America and not indoctrinated by these far left teachers who want them to think it's about Ibram X. Kendi's view of our past. You're a gift. You're a treasure, Ben Carson.

What a pleasure. Thank you. Well, thanks, Megan. Take care. All right, folks, don't miss Monday's show because we have got Allie Beth Stuckey. She's amazing. You know her podcast, I think, right? She's over on The Blaze and she's been killing it. And this is a traditional Christian woman who's been totally fearless in her approach to all social issues. And I find her really illuminating.

When I listen to her on some of the legislation that the Biden administration is pushing through right now. I learn a lot like the Equality Act. I mean, you should hear her talk about that. And you will. You will on Monday when I ask her all about it. But she's an awesome gal. And I'm looking forward to our discussion. And she's she's one of those tough folks who doesn't really care what you say about her, because like Ben Carson was saying, she's got faith in her life. She's got priorities where they matter. And I'm looking forward to our talk. So that's Monday. And then next week, get ready because you know, we're going to five days a week in September, September 7th. Like I said, it'll only be four days because that's Labor Day. But anyway, we're starting our serious gig right after Labor Day. So that's that's the whole, you know, all the bells and

whistles. We're going to have video for you on YouTube. We're going to have five days a week. We're going to have live programming, whatever you want. But next week, we're going to start going four days a week. Four days, I say. Unless I'm really tired. But that's the plan. Four days a week. And so it's an exciting week.

And we hope you'll kick it off with us right when Ellie Beth joins us. See you then. Thanks for listening to The Megyn Kelly Show. No BS, no agenda, and no fear. The Megyn Kelly Show is a Devil May Care media production in collaboration with Red Seat Ventures. Thank you.