On Wednesday's New Day, CNN's Chris Cuomo repeatedly tried to get Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson to attack conservatives, as well as his competitors, on the Confederate flag controversy. Cuomo asked, "Isn't it a part of leadership saying to people who don't want to call what happened in this Charleston church a hate crime – calling them out on that, and showing them that that is not a time to play politics and say that race colors too much of the public discussion?" [video below]
The anchor also tried to get Carson to condemn the social conservatives who likened the rainbow LGBT flag as a symbol to how many see the Confederate flag: "Many people are equating what the Confederate flag stands for with the gay pride flag, and saying – hey, that flag should be taken down, too, because all it represents is hatred toward Christians and people who don't favor gay rights. Do you see an equation between those two symbols?"
Cuomo made his intent clear in his first question to the former neurosurgeon:
CHRIS CUOMO: A lot of reaction to what you wrote about this situation – what is your message to those of the conservative wing of the party who, when this first happened, said, why does it have to be called a hate crime? Why do you have to make everything about race? If it was a hate crime at all, it's against Christians. And why do you have to go after this flag now? It's about heritage. It's not about hate. What is your message to these people?
Dr. Carson replied by citing an incident where a neighbor apparently displayed the Confederate flag as a message to him and his family, and how his other neighbors shamed that person. He added that "we are social beings as human beings. Let's send the right messages to each other, and I think that will take care of a lot of our problems. Let's not just turn a blind eye to things."
The CNN anchor followed up by spinning the last part of his guest's answer:
CUOMO: And what do you see in that blindness? Why do you think that there are – there's this motivation to blame the media or the left or whomever about calling things hate crimes and making things about race? What do you see as motivating that?
Carson pointed out that "people are...stoking the flames of controversy and division...and we're better than that. And we...have to recognize that just because we might have a disagreement about something doesn't make us mortal enemies. It doesn't make us people who should be wanting to destroy the reputation or the business of our fellow Americans. We already have people outside, like radical jihadists, who want to destroy us. Why should we engage in destroying ourselves?"
Cuomo wasn't satisfied by this response, and singled out Carson's competitors for supposedly not giving the proper response to the controversy. The journalist continued to hound the Republican when he refused to go after the other presidential candidates:
CUOMO: And do you see it as instructive that, while you came out right away – and yes, you're the only African-American running for president right now – but you came out right away and called this for what it is and saw the flag for what it is and what should be done with removing that symbol. But a lot of your competitors did not. They brushed it off as strictly states' rights. Governor [Mike] Huckabee said this is a distraction; this is a gotcha question; this has nothing to do with being president. How do you understand those types of responses?
CARSON: Well, I mean, I think everybody responds in a way that they feel is – is the most acceptable, and I never try to predict or analyze what other people are thinking. It's probably better just to ask them. But, you know, I think what we, as Americans, once again, have to keep in mind is that this is a pluralistic society, and we have to live together. And that means we have to identify things that are wrong – we have to call them what they are, because you – you'll never be able to deal with them, if you're not willing to call them what they are – recognize that we do have a problem, and let's work on solving it.
CUOMO: But that's – doesn't that also go, by extension of analogy, to the people who are fighting these ideas? And isn't it a part of leadership saying to people who don't want to call what happened in this Charleston church a hate crime – calling them out on that, and – and showing them that that is not a time to play politics and say that race colors too much of the public discussion?
CARSON: Well, obviously, I want to make sure that people understand that I do recognize that-
CUOMO: You certainly do from what you've written and what you've said, sir.
CARSON: And I think, hopefully, others will – will come to that understanding. And let's talk about it, because it is going to be our civil discussions that help us through all of these various issues of division in our country. And if we don't address them, we wind up with more people like Dylann Roof.
Cuomo brought up the rainbow flag issue before moving on to the issue of Donald Trump entering the GOP presidential race. Dr. Carson repeatedly punted on answering the question, despite the anchor continuing to badger him to attack conservatives:
CUOMO: And let me hold you to your own test here on a different level: many people are equating what the Confederate flag stands for with the gay pride flag, and saying – hey, that flag should be taken down, too, because all it represents is hatred toward Christians and people who don't favor gay rights. Do you see an equation between those two symbols?
CARSON: Well, you know, I decided that I really wanted to talk about the Confederate flag during this time-
CUOMO: But you just said, Doctor, that you cannot avoid these difficult situations, because that's how they fester. You must deal with what is difficult to deal with. That's part of leadership. You said that about the other issue.
CUOMO: Like I said, if you want to talk about that, let's do that on a different segment.
CUOMO: So the discomfort of that conversation, you feel, distracts from the Confederate flag; or it's just not something you want to handle?
CARSON: Let's do it at another time and specifically address that issue.
CUOMO: All right. So we'll leave that for another time.
CNN has repeatedly confronted the Republican presidential candidate on LGBT issues during past interviews. Earlier in June 2015, Brianna Keilar hounded Carson on whether homosexuals "face discrimination" in the U.S. Cuomo himself sparred with the former Johns Hopkins physician during interviews in February and March 2015.
