During an interview on ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday, co-host Whoopi Goldberg asked Ben Carson to explain his recent comment that “Hitler” could “happen here” in the United States.
Carson first noted that he used Adolf Hitler and the Nazis as an example to get a rise out of liberals.
“I purposely said that because I knew the left wing would go crazy: ‘He said Hitler!'” he said on “The View” before explaining his comment.
“So what I said is most of the people in Nazi Germany did not believe in what Hitler was doing. But did they speak up? No. They kept their mouths shut,” Carson continued. “And when you do that, you are compromising your freedom and the freedom of people who come behind you. You have to be willing to stand up for what you believe in.”
Goldberg cited the White Rose Society to say that some people did stand up against Hitler.
“Not enough,” Carson replied.
“I want people in America to stand up for what we believe in,” he continued.
Carson made the comments last week at events in North Carolina and New Hampshire.
“I’ve talked in the past about how the people in Nazi Germany did not agree with Hitler. A lot of them didn’t. But did they stand up? Did they say anything? No, they kept their mouths shut and look at the atrocities that occurred,” Carson said at a church North Carolina, according to ABC News. “And some people think something like that can’t happen here but think again. Look at the world and all those examples of tyranny, it can happen here.”
“I mean if people don’t speak up for what they believe, then other people will change things without them having a voice. That’s what I mean. That’s what facilitated [Hitler’s] rise,” he continued, according to ABC.
Carson’s campaign manager, Barry Bennett, told ABC News that Carson should start using a different example.
“It’s an example [Carson] has been using for years and, to be honest with you, he needs to find a better example because the problem is as soon as you say Hitler, nobody hears anything else you say,” he said. “It’s just so evil, so contemptible, that no one can hear anything else.”
Watch part of Carson’s appearance on “The View” via ABC:
