A House Democrat says that Ben Carson “is unfit to serve and should resign,” claiming that the Housing and Urban Development secretary lied to her about policies that could prevent transgender homeless people to be turned away from government housing for religious reasons.
“One day after [Mr. Carson] told me he isn’t anticipating any changes to protections for LGBTQ people in shelters, HUD announced a proposal to gut that very rule. He either lied to Congress or has no idea what policies his agency is pursuing. Either way, it’s unacceptable,” Rep. Jennifer Wexton of Virginia originally tweeted Wednesday.
“As a former prosecutor, I take Congressional testimony very seriously. This week, Secretary Carson lied to me and to Congress. He lied again when he called me to ’clarify’ his testimony. He’s proven himself to be deceitful & inept as HUD Secretary. He should resign,” she tweeted in a followup message Thursday.
Ms. Wexton said Mr. Carson called her after the hearing because he didn’t fully understand her question, but she said Friday “it’s pretty clear that he lied to me.”
“The question was clear, you showed the clip, he volunteered that he did not anticipate making changes to the rule then went and did it the very next day,” the first-term congresswoman said on CNN’s “At This Hour” program.
“Nearly one-third of the transgender community will experience homelessness in their lifetime and, before the rule was promulgated, one in five shelters would turn transgender people away, so this is gonna really impact the community and even could cost people their lives,” she said.
Ms. Wexton said she has a bill to “ensure equal access” for homeless shelters in the coming weeks.
“We’ve got to do what we can as Congress to stop these abuses by the executive branch,” she said.
Mr. Carson also drew controversy this week during that same hearing where he misheard Rep. Katie Porter say “Oreos” while asking questions about REOs. He claimed he was having trouble hearing her but joked about it on social media.
Health and Human Services announced Friday that it also wants to roll back protections for transgender patients, raising concern among LGBT activists who fear a loss of care while cheering conservatives who say the Obama-era regulation distorted existing law.
• Tom Howell Jr. contributed to this report
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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