Ben Carson's first hearing before Maxine Waters's committee was a disaster

[babylonsister]

Ben Carson’s first hearing before Maxine Waters’s committee was a disaster
Carson confused foreclosures for cookies — and things didn’t improve from there.
By Aaron Rupar@atrupar May 21, 2019, 4:55pm EDT


On Tuesday, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson testified before Rep. Maxine Waters’s (D-CA) Financial Services Committee for the first time since Waters became the chair in January. His performance did not go well.

Carson — a former brain surgeon and Republican presidential candidate whom President Donald Trump nominated as his HUD secretary in 2017 despite his complete lack of relevant experience — tried to defend a budget proposal that would cut 16.4 percent from HUD’s budget. He was also questioned about a plan HUD announced last year to impose rent increases of as much as 150 percent on people who live in subsidized housing.

But in trying to explain these proposals, Carson demonstrated a shocking level of condescension toward members of Congress, as well as a lack of familiarity with basic housing terminology.

During an exchange with Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), Carson revealed that he’s unfamiliar with a common acronym used to described foreclosed properties — REO, which stands for real-estate owned.

“Do you know what an REO is?” Porter asked.

“An Oreo?” Carson replied, apparently thinking of cookies.

After Porter patiently set him straight, Carson offered to get her in touch with “people who do that” (deal with foreclosed properties) at HUD, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Porter, before she ran for Congress, was California’s independent monitor of banks in a nationwide $25 billion mortgage settlement.

“Respectfully, that was my day job before I came to Congress,” Porter told him. “I spent a decade working with the people at HUD on this problem.”

Porter later posted video of the exchange on Twitter.

Link to tweet

more...

https://www.vox.com/2019/5/21/18634580/ben-carson-oreo-hearing-disaster

[gratuitous]

1. A man of integrity would have resigned on the spot

Not many people know what an REO is, but only one person is the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Ben Carson really ought to know what the hell his department does. He should also have the least inkling of who's who on the committee he's testifying before. It's was like he was telling Neil DeGrasse Tyson what astronomers do.

It's amazing how incompetent Trump's cabinet folks are now that they're subject to the very least amount of minimal oversight.

[onenote]

2. A man of integrity would never have taken a job for which they were unqualified

[tblue37]

7. How about when he told Rep. Pressley that HE was "reclaiming [his] time"?

She smacked him down hard for that! She said, "You don't get to do that."

He is so dumb, and lacks the curiosity to learn anything about how the government works, or about the job he is supposed to be doing.

[gratuitous]

11. As God is my witness, I thought you were talking about an Onion article

Holy fuck!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/ben-carson-tries-to-reclaim-time-in-tense-exchange/2019/05/21/e93a2274-6334-49ab-882e-aba4f1566f32_video.html?utm_term=.f4b5cc29311c

Ben doesn't look like he's all that thrilled to be answering to Rep. Pressley.

[gldstwmn]

54. Here it is:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="

" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[pangaia]

15. Ben Carson is one of the stupidest human beings on planet earth.

The shear depth of his total lack of knowledge about anything is dumbfounding...

[erronis]

42. Even gives Fred Trump's son (the POS) a run for the stupidify crown

Guess it doesn't matter much.

We don't have competency tests or IQ thresholds to be president. This peeResident didn't need to get a security clearance or pass an ethics review. If this country lasts, it may be time to institute some reasonable hurdles before they can run for office or be appointed to head a cabinet post. Speaking of hurdles, how about being able to walk a full 9-hole champion golf course.

[Kurt V.]

40. +1

[Funtatlaguy]

3. Bless his heart. About all you can say.

[emmaverybo]

4. Could be on a benzodiazepine: Ativan, Xanax, Valium. More than the therapeutic dose.

[babylonsister]

12. Could just be a moron, too. He seems to

prove that time and again.

[belpejic]

13. He always looks high to me.

Benzos would be a good guess.

[uponit7771]

51. +1

[gldstwmn]

53. He was slumped sideways in his chair and his eyes were barely open.

This is what is running our government. We are so screwed.

[oasis]

5. Carson's "Aleppo moment". He probably thought Porter was trolling him.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. This is what's wrong with America.

Too many people running things that are there because of their political connections, but know absolutely nothing about the inner workings of their departments or companies.

Seriously, who started this fucked up business model?

[uponit7771]

9. +1

[mopinko]

14. the greedy bastard at 1600 penn. these seats are for sale.

whether you have an ego, like carson, who wants to polish his resume, or whether you are sent there to undo the agency, like pruitt and zinke.
some pay for their own ticket, and some people are getting tickets from their friends.
till someone can point me to another way to assemble such a cadre of crooks, grifters and losers, that's my story, and i'm stickin to it.

[Wounded Bear]

19. That is hardly a new thing...

[misanthrope]

39. Correct, it's long been common to the business world

So when you tell someone to run government "like a business"...well.

[Baitball Blogger]

41. Exactly.

It's a model that comes straight out of business schools. We're suffering the scourge of the MBA's.

Can't tell you how many times I hear someone say that a new person stepped in at the top and the decisions they make are at cross-purposes with the way the company operates -- and for a reason.

[dchill]

23. As intended.

[lunatica]

8. Another brainy, eloquent, professional woman!!

Don’t nobody fuck with her! She’ll hang them on their own petard!

I love her!

I applaud her!

[SunSeeker]

26. Katie Porter is a treasure!! She beat an entrenched GOP nutbag.

We went from the ridiculous to the sublime here in Orange County. We are so lucky she decided to run for office! Love, love, LOVE her!

[Irishxs]

10. Did he remind them aliens built the pyramids?

[left-of-center2012]

28. To store wheat

Isn't that what he claimed?

[SunSeeker]

30. Yep. nt

[sheshe2]

16. Snopes.

HUD Secretary Ben Carson bought a $31,000 dining set and billed taxpayers for it.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/did-ben-carson-purchase-a-31000-dining-set-and-charge-it-to-hud/

All the while he...

He was also questioned about a plan HUD announced last year to impose rent increases of as much as 150 percent on people who live in subsidized housing.

Ben, such a robbinghood. Steal from the poor give it to ME!

Robbinghood Robbinghood riding through the glen
Robbinghood with his merry band of men
Steal from the poor give it to ME!
Robbinghood. Robbinghood. Robinghood.

[pazzyanne]

17. I truly hope this man is no longer doing brain surgery!

It is scary to think he was opening peoples' skulls at one point in his life. His incompetence is lit up in neon lights!

[Fritz Walter]

22. Beat me to it!

I realize there are people who are brilliant in one field, but compensate by being complete imbeciles when it comes to everything else.

I think Carson has burst that bubble. Or — perhaps more accurately — imploded it.

Honestly, it doesn’t occur to this lump that real people are impacted negatively by his decisions. In huge numbers.

[SunSeeker]

29. Indeed. He apparently left a sponge in a patient's brain.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/andrewkaczynski/ben-carson-responds-to-tabloid-report-claiming-he-left-a-spo

And has been sued for malpractice at least 8 times. https://www.thedailybeast.com/ben-carson-was-sued-for-malpractice-at-least-eight-times

[emmaverybo]

37. Racist Republicans playing with racial politics nothing new. They found an unqualified person

to say, see, we are a big tent. We outplay you liberals. Did the same thing through nominating Clarence Thomas. Which is not to say Ben Carson or Clarence Thomas were dupes. Why not let your party use identity politics for you and your chosen party to get ahead?

[Sgent]

61. Mem

the sponge thing is bad but primarily the nurses fault.

The best way to not get sued as a Neurosurgeon is to do no neurosurgery, it goes double for pediatrics.

[Sgent]

60. He was extraordinarily

gifted. He won the Presidential Medal of Freedom and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences due to his neurosurgical skills, new techniques, and gifted surgery.

I've never seen or even heard of someone with such a difference in skills.

[pazzyanne]

65. So basically he is a savant?

In my world, a savant is extremely gifted, but has skills deficits in daily living skills. His deficit could definitely be medically induced by non-therapeutic drug use, as someone pointed out in an earlier post. His performance at the hearing definitely does not line up with his resume. I agree that he is unqualified to operate in his present assignment and needs to be replaced, as he seemed to lack a grasp of his duties at the most basic level.

[area51]

18. And Carson the Clown is trying to make a joke of it on his Twitter account.

Link to tweet

For those not on Twitter:

"OH, REO! Thanks, @RepKatiePorter. Enjoying a few post-hearing snacks. Sending some your way!"

[SunSeeker]

27. Oy. He thinks it's funny that he does not know his job?

[3catwoman3]

31. Did this not-so-smart ass spell...

...Oreos with an apostrophe?

If you enlarge the note, it sure looks like O’reos -

[dhill926]

33. fuck this arrogant asshole...

[Fritz Walter]

43. Are you fucking kidding me?

As a (relatively clueless) white guy, even I know that the term “Oreo” has a perjorative meaning in some communities.
According to Wikipedia,

Etymology
By analogy with the proprietary "Oreo Cookie" that is black on the outside and white on the inside, implying that certain black people are white at heart.

Noun
Oreo cookie (plural Oreo cookies)

(slang, idiomatic, mildly pejorative) A black person that appears to the community to embody the social and cultural features of a white person

[gldstwmn]

20. Got Oreos?

He knows nothing about real estate.

[pangaia]

49. He doesn't know certain things about Oreos, either.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

21. This prick is on a quest to eliminate the phrase "it's not brain surgery" from

the lexicon.

[Honeycombe8]

25. He's even more stupid than I thought! And that's pretty darn stupid! Incompetent! nt

[UniteFightBack]

32. The camera man was laughing at his dumb lispy ass. nt

[japple]

34. These idiot cabinet members and tRUMP appointees, plus GOP members of the House

and Senate are making a mockery of the US government.

[Kurt V.]

35. porter continues to be an excellent inquisitor

[dflprincess]

36. Any word on who kept Rep. Waters

from taking her gavel to him?

[Hotler]

47. And it then was reported that Rep. Water's...

eyes lite up and she told Carson to go outside and cut her a switch.

[PatrickforO]

38. The guy is dumb as a stick.

There's a fellow I wouldn't want near my brain with a scalpel.

Ever.

[Fritz Walter]

44. "Are you the brain specialist?"

[malaise]

45. He was on something

That was a disaster

[pangaia]

50. No, Malaise. Not on something. THAT IS Ben Carson. He is ALWAYS like that...

His switch is never turned on. That's the problem..

[malaise]

55. Damn he's dumb

and condescending to boot - that wa a disaster.
I just wonder how many properties have been looted by the Con and his goons while these fool pretends to run HUD.

[Hotler]

46. And this man was allowed to cut on people. nt

[Blue Owl]

48. Has Been Carson

n/t

[ProudMNDemocrat]

52. Carson is clueless.....

A brilliant Brain Surgeon does not a HUD Secretary make.

[stopbush]

56. So proud of MY Rep Katie Porter! Such an improvement over that suck up Mimi Walters.

[customerserviceguy]

57. In Carson's defense

there are a lot of acronyms bandied about in the real estate industry. Ever heard of a FSBO? That's a house that's for sale by owner.

I worked in the title insurance business from 1976 to 2005, with stints as a tax accountant during much of the 1980's, and there were terms that I didn't learn until late in my career.

I'm sure that surgeons use a lot of abbreviations that most laypeople would not understand.

[tulipsandroses]

58. That can't be your defense when you are the Sec of HUD

It may be a defense for a lay person, but it should not be for the Secretary of HUD. if you are a lay person that has shopped for a home over the last few years its hard not to come across those terms. I find it extremely troubling that the HUD Sec did not know this term.

[customerserviceguy]

59. My point was

It takes a lot of years for a person to learn the jargon of a new field. That said, he was a bad fit for the job.

[Cha]

63. There is NO "defense" of Ben Carson.

[LanternWaste]

67. No rational defense exists.

REO and OREOs are common parlance within an intersection of large and diverse industries (banking, real estate, money management, etc.). Anyone who manages more than ten people in any of these industries is more than aware of their existence as would anyone working in editing know the terms 'proof', 'font' and 'character'.

It's basic stuff, but maybe not in call-centers.

[Cha]

62. And, I've read on here that it

"..didn't matter that we Won BLUEWAVE.. "

It sure as Hell Does!

Mahalo, Rep Katie Porter

[Wounded Bear]

64. Perhaps the funniest part is: does anybody remember what an Oreo is?

...us old folks should remember.

An Oreo was a term for someone who was black, but tried to act like white people acted. Black on the outside, white on the inside.

It was not a complement back when black people were in the initial stages of fighting for their basic rights as human beings.

Just sayin'

[ravencalling]

66. If I were a brain surgeon

Or any surgeon for that matter, it would be my passion. I doubt that there are many that become surgeons and hate their jobs so much that they want to trade it in for a 9 to 5 bureaucratic position they are unqualified for, especially someone who has a brilliant gift. It doesn't mean you cannot do other things. Many doctors have gone on to become writers, teachers and politicians. But Ben Carson is a surgeon who threw it all away in order to become a car mechanic who doesn't know what a spark plug is or why wheels should be round, with no skilled mechanics to guide his hands as he turns every car he touches into junk. He serves only as a sarcastic puppet of a racist criminal sociopath president. This is what he will be remembered for.