Ben Carson, a former 2016 presidential candidate-turned key Donald Trump supporter, sparred with BBC America Katty Kay on live television early Friday.
The two argued over accusations from several women over allegations of sexual impropriety, with Carson at one point demanding Kay's microphone be shut off.
The arguments began on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program when Kay asked Carson point-blank if he was accusing the women involved of lying about Trump.
Her question came after Carson opened his interview by telling the program an argument against one of Trump's accusers, Jessica Leeds, who said Trump grabbed at her and groped her while they were passengers in a first-class section of a plane in the 1970s.
"If somebody's sitting next to you in the first class section of the airplane, there are stewardesses, there are other people around, and there's this gigantic arm rest," said Carson. "What happened to all those things? I really look at the way that these things have been brought up, and as you know, a week or two, I predicted that this was going to happen and that they will keep coming up with stuff to try to take your eye off the ball?
And after Kay asked him if he was accusing Leeds and other women of lying about Trump, he responded to her that "that's your characterization, because you need to characterize it that way to try to make me the bad guy."
"You just said it is a question —" she began.
"Stop, stop, stop, stop," Carson told her. "Hey, can you turn her microphone off, please? Turn her microphone off so I can talk?"
"No. Stop? It is a simple question," show host Joe Scarborough interjected. "Yes or no, do you believe these women are lying or not? We just want a straight answer."
"It doesn't matter whether they're lying or not," Carson replied. "What matters is that the train is going off the cliff. We're taking our eye off of that, and we're getting involved in other issues that we can take care of later."
"Of course it matters," Kay argued back.
When Kay told him again that he was "implying that you think they are lying . . . then that's a huge issue," Carson asked the show if they had a "plug."
"Here's what we need to be thinking about," Carson said. "I love the fact that all of the sudden, you want to talk about morality in our country, I would love us to bring back our Judeo-Christian values and begin to teach those things, at a time other than a political election, but right now the train is going off the cliff. You've got to understand that."
Carson, trying to change the topic, said it's "like hitting against a brick wall" to get people and the media to understand the trouble the nation is in, with an "almost $20 trillion national debt."
He also argued that the issues with the nation's borders, the division and the country are "not Republican or Democrat issues. This is America we're talking about," and told the show's panel to "get it through your thick skulls."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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