Incoming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he has deep concerns about Ben Carson’s ability to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
President-elect Donald Trump announced Carson’s nomination on Monday.
“I have serious concerns about Dr. Carson’s lack of expertise and experience in dealing with housing issues,” Schumer said in a statement. “Someone who is as anti-government as him is a strange fit for Housing Secretary, to say the least. As he moves through the confirmation process, Americans deserve to know that their potential HUD Secretary is well versed in housing policy and has a vision for federal housing programs that meets the needs of Americans across the country and seeks to provide access to those that we haven’t reached already.”
Carson had previously been considered, but his spokesman Armstrong Williams had come out and said that Carson was not interested in serving because he didn’t have the experience.
“Dr. Carson was never offered a specific position, but everything was open to him,” Williams told The Hill newspaper in November. “Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience; he’s never run a federal agency. The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency.”
