Ben Carson Formally Blames Wife for the Infamous $31,000 Dining Set for His HUD Office; Cynthia Nixon Runs For Office
LEMON: We've got some hot topics tonight from the "Sex and the City" star running for office to Dr. Ben Carson apparently blaming his own wife for that infamous $31,000 dining set for his HUD office. He rolled right over the bus, threw her right under. Here to discuss, CNN political commentators Andre Bauer, Tara Setmayer, Peter Beinart, along with former New York City council speaker Christine Quinn. We have a lot to talk about. Christine, you got some explaining to do.</s>LEMON: So, sex -- hold on, I want to --</s>CHRISTINE QUINN, FORMER NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL SPEAKER: OK.</s>LEMON: Let me set it up. "Sex and the City" actress, Cynthia Nixon, announced yesterday that she will be running for governor of New York and will challenge current governor, Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary. And here is what Ms. Quinn told The New York Post in an interview. She said, I'm surprised by this race. It is flight of fancy on her part. Cynthia Nixon was opposed to having a qualified lesbian become mayor of New York City. Now she wants to be an unqualified lesbian to be governor of New York. You have to be qualified and have experience. She isn't qualified to be governor. Your comments have since come under fire. What were you getting at? That statement.</s>QUINN: Well, look, I would say a couple of things. One, I was trying to make a comparison between the two of us in a way that I thought might be quippier or even a little funny. It obviously came out in a very different way, a way that has left some people feeling as if I was raising her sexual orientation as a reason she was not qualified to run or be governor. Nothing could be further from the truth. So for any with whom I left that impression, I sincerely apologize.</s>LEMON: You understand if someone on the right had said that about -- they would be seen as inflammatory.</s>QUINN: Oh, absolutely. That was not my intent at all. Look, I'm somebody who has dedicated most of my career to fighting for the advancement of the LGBT community. I know what it's like to be on the end of homophobia and sexism on the campaign trail and in political office. I have experienced it. Let me tell you, if anybody attacks Cynthia Nixon for being a lesbian when she is running for governor, I will be the first one supporting her in that regard. It was ill-advised quote. I was trying to make a comparison. It came out very sideways. I stand by my statement that she is unqualified.</s>LEMON: So I get it. And listen, you have taken ownership of your comments. And by the way, you got two girls and you have the same hair color pretty much. It's like, you know, so much going on here. OK.</s>QUINN: Thank you.</s>LEMON: Mr. Bauer. Let's talk about the HUD secretary, Ben Carson, and his wife. Candy picked out a $31,000 furniture set for the department's dining room. Contradictory statements by the agency that Carson knew nothing about it. Well, today, Carson said this.</s>BEN CARSON, SECRETARY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT: If it was up to me, my office would probably look like a hospital waiting room. But at any rate, you know, I invited my wife to come in and help me downstairs. She showed us some catalogs. The prices were beyond what I wanted to pay. I made it clear that just didn't seem right to me. And you know, I left it with my wife.</s>LEMON: So, is he sleeping on the couch tonight?</s>QUINN: Thirty-one thousand dollars.</s>TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, yes, yes, sleeping in the dog house.</s>ANDRE BAUER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Not the best situation at home. I think he did a good job answering the question. Look, he says he pass it off to his wife. It sounds believable to me. I think he has done a good job overall. I think he is a class act. And I hope that this will pass quickly because of the fact that he has a bigger fish to fry. But the optics aren't good, Don. Any time you're a Republican, you need to -- that's one of the big things is, we say we are better with finances. We are more shrewd with the tax dollar. We have to stick to that. We're under a different set of rules quite frankly.</s>LEMON: OK.</s>SETMAYER: So.</s>BAUER: You can't claim it and then not.</s>SETMAYER: I have a different opinion on this. I think that Ben Carson was never qualified speaking of being unqualified. Yes, he was a brilliant brain surgeon. That was his legacy. He has ruined that. He should have stuck to what he knew and not gone down this path. He had no business being HUD secretary. Even his own buddy, Armstrong Williams, said that he had no experience and didn't think he was going to take it because he doesn't know how to run a large agency. And this is what happens. He said it. And this is what happens. You can't sit here and tell me that someone who understands how to run a cabinet agency ever would have allowed this. This is more than -- first of all, his wife isn't on the payroll.</s>QUINN: Exactly.</s>SETMAYER: What is she doing picking anything out? Number one. Number two, there is a limit. A $5,000. There was a career official that raised the concern about the amount of money that was being spent on this. You have to get congressional approval if you are ordering anything over $5,000 and this person was a whistle blower because Candy Carson, she basically threatened her, and so she had to become a whistle blower in order to expose this. This is completely wrong.</s>LEMON: But isn't that issue with his son as well. His son is involved in the politics.</s>PETER BEINART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: What a shock. In the Trump administration, we would see these kinds of things. Bringing your son for some kind of lucrative side deal. Basically putting up, you know, expenses. Look what the Trump family themselves is doing in terms of the secret service costs of the country. And then you got Steve Mnuchin. You know, person after person. It comes from the top. The ethos of this administration is basically get as much as you can get out of government. We have seen that in Donald Trump.</s>BAUER: That's not fair. He doesn't even take a paycheck.</s>BEINART: Donald Trump having people stay at Trump hotels for government business again and again and again --</s>BAUER: You are so giddy about the fact about how much business he was losing at Mar-a-Lago. There was a story on this network about how great it was that he was losing all those business now.</s>BEINART: Donald Trump had intertwined his business dealings with the public affairs of the government in a way that we have not seen.</s>LEMON: Well, and in way -- in ways --</s>BEINART: I'm not surprised that Ben Carson got the same --</s>LEMON: Ben Carson's wife is involved. Susan Pompeo, the wife of the CIA chief, has also taken unusually active role in the CIA. You got the EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, spent $200,000 of taxpayer money on first class air fare, charter, military flights, secure soundproof phone booth and on and on and on. He says he needs all of that. Anyway, that's a lot of money. We got more. We can talk about that. We go to go. When we come back, we are going to talk about Melania Trump addressing her husband's own Twitter habits about bullying right after this.