Appearing as a guest on Monday's CNN Tonight, Georgetown University professor and former MSNBC political analyst Michael Eric Dyson complained that Donald Trump had "tried to retroactively abort" Barack Obama "from the womb of democracy." accused Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of being a "Dr. Frankenstein" who had helped birth "monster" Trump, and ended up ranting over Dr. Ben Carson recently including African slaves in a discussion of immigrants whose descendants have benefited from their ancestors' tough journey to America -- even though former President Barack Obama himself has a history of calling slaves "immigrants."
Earlier in the segment, during a discussion of President Trump's recent charges that Obama had "wiretapped" him while he was running for President, Dyson repeated a line he has previously used about Trump and birtherism as he complained:
Here's a man who made us believe that Barack Obama was the boogeyman. Here's a man who spent years of his life trying to convince America this guy is illegitimate, he's ill-informed, he's ill-conceived, and he tried to retroactively abort him from the womb of democracy. Now, he's calling him Richard Nixon. That's the sheet calling the rice white.
For a liberal who probably supports easy access to abortion, such a metaphorical reference about "aborting" a President is ironic. A bit later, host Don Lemon wondered why Trump's supporters keep defending him, leading Dyson to his "Frankenstein" comparison:
Well, because they're complicit in it because he's not -- he's not the product of himself. If we're speaking of horror, Frankenstein is the name of the doctor, not the monster. So the people who produced -- there's a relationship organically between Donald Trump and -- believe it or not -- some of the previously existing incarnations of Republican ideology.
He added:
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So when Mitch McConnell said, "We want to make him a one-term President, and everything he does we'll stop," that's organically related to what Donald Trump did. So Mitch McConnell is Dr. Frankenstein, and Donald Trump is the monster.
Toward the end of the segment, host Lemon introduced one of the day's over-hyped stories about HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson's speech to the department in which he lumped in slaves with immigrants as he recalled those who had traveled to America long ago.
Lemon played a clip of Dr. Carson:
That's what America is about, a land of dreams and opportunity. There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships who worked even harder, even longer for less, but they, too, had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great-grandsons, great-granddaughters might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land.
Even though he conceded that slaves could be considered a type of "immigrant," Dyson found the comments "one of the most atrocious acts of historical revisionism" as he ranted:
This is one of the most atrocious acts of historical revisionism that one might imagine, again, from a man who is at the height of American political power, at the apex as the secretary of HUD. It's astonishing. First of all, these are forced immigrants at best. These are people who were compelled to come here. They didn't come over in the Nina and Pina. They came over on slave ships where they were conscripted to serve not as indentured servants but as enslaved people in manacles and shackles.
He added:
They didn't have a dream -- their dream was to stay in Africa. They were rudely extricated from African soil and brought here in 1619 forceably against their will to serve the legacy of American slavery. And Dr. Carson has turned them into willing immigrants who came here in search of a dream.
Lemon then played an audio clip of Dr. Carson responding to the outrage from the left in an appearance on the Armstrong Williams Show. Dr. Carson:
I think people need to actually look up the word "immigrant." Whether you're voluntary or involuntary, if you came from outside to the inside, you're an immigrant. Whether you're legal or you're illegal, you come from the outside to inside, you're an immigrant. Slaves came here as involuntary immigrants, but they still had the strength to hold on.
Even though Dyson himself had conceded that slaves brought to the country by force might be technically considered slaves, the race-obsessed former MSNBC analyst still did not back down from his criticism:
DON LEMON: Does this clarification change anything for you?
MICHAEL ERIC DYSON: Not at all. I mean, let's give him the positive recognition there. It is true that the enslaved people did have the forbearance and the fortitude to hang on. But, again, to confuse the matter by suggesting that there was a relationship between immigrants who came here from Eastern and Western Europe -- Poles, Jews, Italians, Lithuanians and the like, and to Africans who were brought here in chains is, as the great philosopher Mike Tyson would say, ludicrous.
Dyson added:
It is just astonishing that Dr. Carson -- a well-known neurosurgeon of the highest order -- would then try to work a surgery on us where he confuses us with terms. And if terms mean nothing, then they have no meaning. And to say that they are involuntary immigrants, to be sure, but "immigrants" suggests a kind of willfulness, an agency or exercise toward a particular goal. They were not engaged in the act of coming here with their own, if you will, volition. It was against their will, and I think Dr. Carson has distorted the entire process.
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Tuesday, March 7, CNN Tonight:
PROFESSOR MICHAEL ERIC DYSON, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Here's a man who made us believe that Barack Obama was the boogeyman. Here's a man who spent years of his life trying to convince America this guy is illegitimate, he's ill-informed, he's ill-conceived, and he tried to retroactively abort him from the womb of democracy. Now, he's calling him Richard Nixon. That's the sheet calling the rice white.
(...)
DON LEMON: Why do his supporters make excuses for him?
DYSON: Well, because they're complicit in it because he's not -- he's not the product of himself. If we're speaking of horror, Frankenstein is the name of the doctor, not the monster. So the people who produced -- there's a relationship organically between Donald Trump and -- believe it or not -- some of the previously existing incarnations of Republican ideology. So when Mitch McConnell said, "We want to make him a one-term President, and everything he does we'll stop," that's organically related to what Donald Trump did. So Mitch McConnell is Dr. Frankenstein, and Donald Trump is the monster.
LEMON: Oh, well, okay, speaking of doctors, I want to get this right. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson referred to slaves as immigrants. He was talking about immigrants coming from Ellis Island while speaking to Department employees earlier. Listen.
DR. BEN CARSON, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT SECRETARY: That's what America is about, a land of dreams and opportunity. There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships who worked even harder, even longer for less, but they, too, had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great-grandsons, great-granddaughters might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land.
LEMON: What do you think, Doctor?
DYSON: Who knew that Martin Luther King Jr. was enslaved in America and speaking about his dream? This is one of the most atrocious acts of historical revisionism that one might imagine, again, from a man who is at the height of American political power, at the apex as the secretary of HUD. It's astonishing. First of all, these are forced immigrants at best. These are people who were compelled to come here. They didn't come over in the Nina and Pina. They came over on slave ships where they were conscripted to serve not as indentured servants but as enslaved people in manacles and shackles.
They didn't have a dream -- their dream was to stay in Africa. They were rudely extricated from African soil and brought here in 1619 forceably against their will to serve the legacy of American slavery. And Dr. Carson has turned them into willing immigrants who came here in search of a dream.
LEMON: You know, one of his advisors -- personal advisors and friends -- is Armstrong Williams. And when I read this, I texted Armstrong. He called me back, and he said, "Don, he's referring to involuntary immigrants." And then he also directed me to his radio show tonight which Dr. Carson was on, and he explained it this way.
DR. CARSON AUDIO: I think people need to actually look up the word "immigrant." Whether you're voluntary or involuntary, if you came from outside to the inside, you're an immigrant. Whether you're legal or you're illegal, you come from the outside to inside, you're an immigrant. Slaves came here as involuntary immigrants, but they still had the strength to hold on.
LEMON: Does this clarification change anything for you?
DYSON: Not at all. I mean, let's give him the positive recognition there. It is true that the enslaved people did have the forbearance and the fortitude to hang on. But, again, to confuse the matter by suggesting that there was a relationship between immigrants who came here from Eastern and Western Europe -- Poles, Jews, Italians, Lithuanians and the like, and to Africans who were brought here in chains is, as the great philosopher Mike Tyson would say, ludicrous. It is just astonishing that Dr. Carson -- a well-known neurosurgeon of the highest order -- would then try to work a surgery on us where he confuses us with terms.
And if terms mean nothing, then they have no meaning. And to say that they are involuntary immigrants, to be sure, but "immigrants" suggests a kind of willfulness, an agency or exercise toward a particular goal. They were not engaged in the act of coming here with their own, if you will, volition. It was against their will, and I think Dr. Carson has distorted the entire process.
LEMON: They weren't looking at the Statue of Liberty going, "Things are going to be great for us."
DYSON: Exactly right.
