RUSH: Folks, it’s really, really great to have Dr. Ben Carson back. The last time Dr. Carson was here, I believe, was the 2015 Republican presidential primary period. Now he is the secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Trump administration. And, Dr. Carson, welcome. It really is great to have you here. Yesterday, when we were putting this together, the last thing we thought we’d be talking about was good economic news today, right?

CARSON: (chuckling) Absolutely. It’s so good to talk to you again, Rush, and you’ve been a subject of my prayers.

RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. I really do. There’s so many of them, and I think they have to be working, Dr. Carson.

CARSON: (chuckling) Well, you sound great today. But, you know, it was very good economic news, but not terribly surprising to me, to be honest with you, because the fundamentals of our economy are still strong. Getting rid of all of those regulatory barriers that were anti-business and the tax cuts, those things are still in place. So all we have to do is bridge the gap and we’ll be right back on that trajectory again. I firmly believe that.

RUSH: Well, you know, you’re echoing something the president said today. I’m glad you mentioned it because it had slipped my mind, and this is really important. He made the point, told the story. We’re sitting here roaring along, and here comes the virus, and they come to him, his best experts, and say, “You gotta shut it down! Shut down the country.”

He tried to object to it, but eventually had to relent. But he said that the fundamentals of this economy — after three years of your-all’s administration — are so strong that it has been able to withstand a two-month or 2-1/2 month shutdown, and it just took a little longer than a month to get it back into gear, and that we have a-record-setting job creation month here. And I think you’re right. I think the fundamentals were so strong that it made today possible.

CARSON: And I think, unfortunately, that’s gonna irritate a lot of people who didn’t want to see the economy come back. So, you know, they’re holding… You know, the funniest thing to me is people trying to shut down the economy, keep people sheltered away. And yet people are out in droves protesting, standing shoulder on shoulder, and they’re saying nothing about that. Is that weird or what?

RUSH: You know, there’s a story in Politico today. I just spent some time talking about it a half hour ago. It’s a bunch of liberal activists who are actually encouraging people that it’s now more important to join these protests than to protect themselves from the virus because systemic racism is far more potentially damaging to the country than the virus is. “Forget what we told you about social distancing! You need to get out and join the protests,” and they say black lives matter?

CARSON: (chuckling) Obviously, the only thing that matters to them is power. And, you know, what we’re dealing with here are people who don’t like our system of government. They want to change it to something different. They believe in a system where you give all power to the government, and the government takes care of you from cradle to grave.

RUSH: Ostensibly, yeah.

CARSON: That has appealed to so many people over the course of time, and it never works. That’s the problem. And here we have it full-fledged coming to our country. But I personally believe that the American people are gonna be smart enough to figure out what’s happening. And they’re not gonna want to give away what we have in this country, something that…

This is a destination spot for people all over the world. You have people forming caravans trying to get in here. Other places are forming caravans trying to get out. You know, this is a great place. We need to preserve it. Has it been perfect? No. Because it’s inhabited by imperfect people. We learn from the things that are not right, and we improve upon them. (crosstalk)

RUSH: Well, they say it’s “irredeemable,” sir. They say because of slavery, the original sin, that America can’t be fixed, that it does need to be junked and reconstituted from the very beginning.

CARSON: Well, does the whole world need to be scrapped? Because slavery has been going on almost since there have been people. It’s still going on today. So, yes, it was a horrible thing. I won’t deny that. It was a horrible thing! But the fact of the matter is, we paid a horrible price for it.

You know, we had a large portion of our population killed during the Civil War because of it. And, you know, it had residual effects. And it’s horrible. I will readily admit that. But you have to also recognize that this is a nation that has given more opportunities to more people, created all kinds of things that have been beneficial to mankind.

RUSH: It’s totally lost on ’em. It doesn’t count. It’s a frustrating thing. Speaking of which, these unbelievable — and apparently serious and becoming more serious — intentions to defund police departments in these blue states and blue cities, how would that affect your job? If they actually do this, how would that affect your job as secretary of Housing and Urban Development? You’re trying to preserve things and grow things out there, then the police are all of a sudden defunded — and, in some places, they’re even talking about dismantling the police department.

CARSON: You know, the police are a very important part of keeping order in a lot of the places that we support with subsidized housing. And what people don’t really think about is what happens next.

RUSH: Yeah.

CARSON: If we don’t have police there, people are gonna buy guns and other ways of protecting themselves, and they’re gonna be hiring these vigilant groups to protect themselves and their businesses, and you’re gonna have just complete Wild West-type chaos. Maybe that’s what they want. Maybe if they have that then they can say now we can impose —

RUSH: Yeah, if they can blame it on you. If they can blame it on you and President Trump, I think that’s the objective.

CARSON: Yeah.

RUSH: They’re in total chaos, and the breakdown of America is actually the objective, as long as they can escape any of the responsibility for it.

CARSON: Well, chaos is the only thing that works for them, because things are working smoothly (chuckling), and nobody wants to change. So that’s their goal. We just have to be smart enough to recognize it, not allow them to do it, because the only way they can succeed is if they can sucker the American people into taking their side.

RUSH: Yeah.

CARSON: And you’ve seen that with this murder that occurred in Minnesota. You know, they get people to start sympathizing with them, and then they want you to go the next step and become part… You know, it’s almost a seduction that takes place.

RUSH: You know, that’s a good way to put it. By the way, folks, we’re talking with secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson. And you are Dr. Ben Carson, you’re a brilliant, brilliant brain surgeon. I know you’re not an epidemiologist, but you probably could squeeze that expertise in as well. Could you give us the latest on the virus, what is known about it? I see Dr. Fauci’s out saying, “Hey, you know, there may not be a second wave. We could probably open the schools in the fall,” which is a major change from what he’s been saying. What is the administration’s position now on the virus and its current status?

CARSON: We’ve learned a lot about the virus, and one of the things we’ve learned is that a large portion of people who have the virus are asymptomatic, probably 25 to 50% of the people. In fact, George Floyd had the virus. He wasn’t necessarily sick from it but, you know, a lot of people have it, which means the good thing is we’ve learned a lot about prevention of spread of the virus, which means that we can go back to work. We can start doing things again. We just need to maintain, you know, some of the social distancing to a degree until we gather more information.

RUSH: Dr. Carson, the protesters aren’t. The protesters and the rioters are shoulder to shoulder and we’ll see if there is, in two to three weeks’ time, an uptick in cases. If there’s not, we could start making the case that we could pack football and baseball stadiums now.

CARSON: Right. If in fact we don’t see that spike, that’s exactly right. You know, it could be that they’re doing us a big favor. (laughing)

RUSH: (laughing) What patriotism. What a great risk they’re taking for all the rest of us.

CARSON: Indeed. But, you know, I have a lot of faith in the American people. One of the things I learned when I was running for president traveling to every nook and corner of this country is that we have an awful lot of people who have common sense. And, you know, they may not be very vocal, but they have a very good sense of what’s going on. And I don’t think that those people are gonna be suckered into, you know, advocating for socialism.

RUSH: Well, that’s the perennial hope that you’re right about that. I share your sentiment. I know the country’s filled with people exactly as you describe. And the media never finds them, either.

CARSON: Oh, no.

RUSH: The media never reports on those people, so you just have to have faith that they’re there.

CARSON: Well, and to some degree, they don’t necessarily want to identify themselves publicly.

RUSH: Well, that’s true, too.

CARSON: Yeah. Because there’s consequences for that.

RUSH: Dr. Carson, thank you for your time. It is so great to have you here, and you are such an accomplished human being and individual, and you’ve made the most of every opportunity that has come your way, and you are to be greatly, greatly admired.

CARSON: Well, thank you.

RUSH: And I am one of the millions who do.

CARSON: And praise the Lord, I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. Thank you for what you do.

RUSH: Thank you, sir. That’s Dr. Ben Carson, the Housing and Urban Development secretary. We have a brief, obscene profit break and then we’ll be right back. Thank you again, sir.