House Democrat slams Ben Carson over Oreo confusion: ‘My questions were serious’

Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) on Wednesday blasted Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson’s reaction to her line of questioning during a hearing in which Carson appeared to confuse a real estate term with Oreo cookies.

Porter told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that her questions at the House Financial Services Committee hearing about real estate owned (REO) properties were “serious.”

“My questions were serious ones,” Porter said. “They weren’t designed to be funny.”

{mosads}And when asked by MSNBC’s Willie Geist if Carson should be in his position, Porter responded, “No, I do not.”

“We’re all losing by not having competent, strong, effective, intelligent leadership at HUD,” she said.

Porter’s comments come after the Oreo debacle and other exchanges between Carson and lawmakers during the hearing — he also avoided answering questions from Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and tried to reclaim time during her questioning, even though rules don’t enable him to do so.

“He literally gave zero competent answers,” Porter said of Carson on MSNBC’s “Last Word” Tuesday night.

During the hearing, Carson told Porter that he’d be “extremely happy” if she’d work with people who deal with foreclosed properties at HUD.

“Respectfully, that was my day job before I came to Congress,” Porter told him on Tuesday. “I spent a decade working with the people at HUD on this problem.”

On Wednesday morning, Porter added, “Mr. Carson not only didn’t know anything about this, but he actually told me it was my job to explain to him and to come to HUD and teach his staff, and to me, that just shows a real disrespect for the importance of his job to the American people.”