Carson Defends Trump Judge Attacks: He Was ‘Talking Out Loud,’ Not ‘Thinking’

Top-flight Donald Trump surrogate Ben Carson made the case Thursday that the real estate mogul was just speaking off the cuff when he attacked an Indiana-born federal judge’s Mexican heritage.

“He was probably talking out loud rather than thinking. That’s not a good thing to do when everything you say is going to be analyzed,” Carson told Politico in an interview.

The presumptive GOP nominee has offered no apology for the remarks, which were condemned by many in his own party as wildly inappropriate at best and racist at worst. But Carson said Trump told him during a private meeting at Trump Tower that he thought the attacks indeed were a mistake.

“He fully recognizes that that was not the right thing to say,” Carson told Politico.

Trump’s attacks on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel widened the rift his candidacy has opened in the GOP. While House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) labeled the remarks “the textbook definition” racism, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) pointedly refused to use that term.

Carson told Politico that Trump was beginning to recognize the gravity his offhand comments hold as the presumptive nominee for one of America’s two major political parties.

“He’s coming to that understanding,” Carson said. “I think he will change it, by necessity—just the natural evolution of moving from the primary to the main event is going to necessitate a change.”

Trump showed no interest in such a pivot in a Wednesday New York Times interview, literally wrinkling his nose at a reporter’s question about moderating his language.

Still, as Carson pointed out, Republicans have no option besides Trump.

“I say, what’s the alternative?” Carson said, promising that Trump would restore America’s “more traditional values.”

“Now, does that mean that I agree with everything Donald Trump does?” he said. “Of course it doesn’t.”