Ex-GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson defended Donald Trump for questioning Hillary Clinton’s religious faith on Thursday, saying that Trump only attacked his own religion on the trail because he was getting “desperate.”
Appearing as a Trump surrogate on MSNBC, Carson said he understood why Trump questioned his religion during the campaign last year.
“I knew why he was doing it. I was challenging him for the lead and he didn’t know what to do and he was getting kind of desperate,” Carson said with a laugh. “It’s okay, it’s politics.”
He also said while a person’s faith “is something that should be private, it should be manifested publicly.”
“The point that was being made there was, it does not matter what protestations or proclamations people make,” Carson said of Trump’s attacks. “Look at the way they live, look at the way they treat other people and the way that they do things, that will tell you all you need to know.”
During a meeting this week with top evangelical leaders, video showed Trump saying that after decades in the public eye, “there’s nothing out there” about Clinton’s religious life. Clinton has openly identified as a Methodist.
