Playing the race card to deflect criticism

Dr. Ben Carson on the Obama administration playing the race card

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," April 15, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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O'REILLY: "Impact Segment" tonight: as we have been reporting both President Obama and Attorney General Holder now using their skin color to deflect criticisms. The race card is being dealt right up front.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you think your Republican colleagues are racists?

ISRAEL: I think to a very -- not all of them, no of course not but to a significant extent the Republican base does have elements that are animated by -- by racism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY: By the way, Mr. Israel is my congressman out of Long Island. We've invited him to come on THE FACTOR any day this week and we hope he does.

Joining us now from Columbia, Missouri -- Fox News analyst Dr. Ben Carson. So the message the President and the Attorney General and the Democratic Party are putting out does resonate among some African-Americans perhaps most -- correct?

BEN CARSON, JOHNS HOPKINS, PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF NEUROSURGERY: Well there is no question that it does resonate with people and which is the reason that they use it. But the real big issue here is there are some major philosophical differences going on in our country right now. There is a group of progressive people who believe that government is the answer to many of our -- our problems and there's a group that feels that this country is (inaudible) by the people that rugged individualism is important and self-determination and responsibility. So those are huge philosophical clashes.

(CROSSTALK)

O'REILLY: But what's happening though --

CARSON: And naturally people --

O'REILLY: What's happening Doctor is this -- I think it's quite clear that in his sixth year in office. President Obama's policies have largely failed. If you look at all of them together, all right. Now, it's still jump ball over Obamacare, but you see what Putin is doing. We just covered it you see, you know, trouble almost everywhere. The economy is not nearly what it should be. Wages continue to go down after six years.

So in order to obscure that, it becomes personal. So Holder and the President making it personal, so is the Democratic Party. There's a war on women. Women are getting hosed, Hispanics they are getting hosed too.

CARSON: Right.

O'REILLY: And you black people -- they just don't like us because we're black. Now I'm saying this could be effective. This could work.

CARSON: Well it works very effectively if you don't really analyze the situation.

O'REILLY: But how many people will do that? How many of the folks and the voters will do that?

CARSON: Well I think they actually can do it if they realize that they're being manipulated. The fact of the matter is, you are going to have deep clashes with the two categories of people that I just described and to ascribe those clashes to something as superficial as race means that you're obviously not investing much in the way of analysis.

And you know so overall big problem that's going on in our nation. You know you can't oppose anything that a progressive black person is doing if you are white without being calling a racist. You can't oppose abortion on demand without being called anti-woman. You can't uphold traditional marriage without being called homophobic. You know, this is really a state of sadness, immaturity and I think the solution to it is for the people to become much more sophisticated in their analysis and not simply accept what the manipulators are trying to pull over.

O'REILLY: Ok but that's pretty wishful thinking you're almost like Juan Williams about Putin.

CARSON: It's happening. It's happening.

O'REILLY: All right let me just pose this. Holder goes to the National Action Network, ok? A grievance group and he gives a speech to the grievance group that's picked up by everybody in the United States. All right? No attorney general is treated this way. Brit Hume is going to deal with it in a minute.

Now, are you telling me, Doctor, that the people in the National Action Network don't believe what holder is saying? They do.

CARSON: Well a lot of them do, I agree. But here is what we have to concentrate on. It's a fact that there are tens of millions of people who have disinvolved themselves with the political process. Who haven't sort of been drinking the Kool-Aid you might say. And there are a lot of minorities, I talk to them all the time, who really are seeing through this whole thing and know that they are being manipulated. And I'm much more optimistic than a lot of people are about what's going to happen in the future.

O'REILLY: All right so it's anecdotal with you though because the polling and that's what I rely a lot on my analysis shows that still 85 percent of African-Americans think President Obama is doing a good job. I mean, his overall approval rating is 40 percent. But then you go into the African-American community it's 85 percent. I mean it just seems to me like they know, they being the Democratic party, they know where the votes are for them and they're going to do whatever they have to do to motivate these people though come out in November.

CARSON: I would not give up on them. I think there is a lot more analysis going on than we might think. And I think sometimes respond to polls the way they expect think they are supposed to respond.

O'REILLY: Ok. Now, were you personally as an African-American offended by what -- what Holder says because I believe Holder believes what he said? I don't think he's a charlatan I think he's genuinely indignant that a white congressman called him out on the contempt and he ascribes it to race.

CARSON: Yes well you know I was a psychology major, and I can tell you people tend to see what you are looking for. So if you expect that somebody is racist then everything that you hear coming from them will be interpreted in that light.

O'REILLY: All right so do you believe Holder believes that he is being treated differently because of his color?

CARSON: I think he probably does believe that, yes. I believe that's what he is looking for, that's what he expects.

O'REILLY: I think he does -- right and he is just saying hey.

CARSON: But I think a lot of other people can see through it. A lot of black people, a lot of other Hispanic people I think they can see right through that.

O'REILLY: The record is the record, if people, voters, bother to look. And I don't know, Doctor, I don't know if they will or not, but we appreciate your time as always, thank you.

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