Former presidential candidate Ben Carson said Wednesday that he linked Hillary Clinton to a prominent community organizer, Saul Alinsky, who once offered measured praise of Lucifer in a book, to provide “perspective” on what type of president the Democrat would be.
“Recognize that this is a very famous book — ‘Rules for Radicals’ — and on the dedication page, you acknowledge Lucifer in an admirable way saying he’s the original radical who gained his own kingdom,” Carson told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day.” “What I am saying is that we are talking about electing to the presidency an individual who embraces someone who obviously is not someone who is consistent.”
Clinton wrote her 1969 Wellesley undergraduate thesis on Alinsky — though she’s said in her own book that she had “fundamental” disagreements with him,” according to an analysis of Carson’s comments on Politifact.
At Tuesday’s Republican National Convention, Carson asked attendees if they could elect Clinton given her relationship to Alinsky, who critics have long accused of harboring communist sympathies.
“Let me tell you something about Saul Alinsky,” he said. “He wrote a book called ‘Rules for Radicals.’ On the dedication page, it acknowledges Lucifer, the original radical who gained his own kingdom.”
Carson asked, “So are we willing to elect someone as president who has as their role model someone who acknowledges Lucifer?”
On “New Day” Carson said Clinton considering the former community organizer and political activist a mentor is troublesome.
“She believed that at that time. And now you look at her actions. You look at what she advocates … those are pretty consistent, quite frankly,” he said.
Carson, who has endorsed Donald Trump, said Alinsky’s teachings matter given his influence in Clinton’s life.
“We all have people who are our mentors. We all have people that we admired as a college student. At Wellesley, she was on a first name basis with Saul Alinsky. He offered her a job after she finished, but she decided to go to law school. They were very close,” he said.
The Clinton campaign did not respond to CNN about Carson’s comment.
Author Salman Rushdie tweeted Wednesday that Carson fails to recognize the difference between irony and humor in the acknowledgment.
“The Satanic Acknowledgment: This is Saul Alinsky on Lucifer. Can’t expect Ben Carson to recognize irony or humor,” he tweeted.