Elise Jordan: ‘Absolutely Crazy’ Carson Would Endorse Trump

DÍAZ-BALART: “Joining me now, NBC political analyst, Elise Jordan, a former senior adviser to Rand Paul, and MSNBC host and political correspondent Steve Kornacki in Lakewood, Ohio, this morning. Thank you for being with me. Elise, let me start with you. We know the phrase politics makes strange bed fellows. What do you think of this Trump/Carson combination?”
JORDAN: “I think it’s absolutely crazy that Ben Carson is endorsing someone who compared him to a pedophile. I really — I can’t believe that he’s sinking that low just to get the attention that comes with being part of the Trump bandwagon. And I find it really disappointing because I have had a lot of respect for Ben Carson. I remember back when I was an undergraduate and Ben Carson came and gave one of the most moving speeches I’ve ever heard in my lifetime about his rise from Detroit and what he went through, and it was so incredibly inspiring. And that hasn’t come out as much on the campaign trail. And now, you know, I really feel like Carson is diminishing his legacy by endorsing Trump.”
DÍAZ-BALART: “But Elise, I mean, look, in politics, these things aren’t that uncommon. You know, team of rivals goes back to Abraham Lincoln. Look, there have been people who have gone at each other in a political process, and when that process is done, they do get together. Is this different? Is this unusually different?”
JORDAN: “I think it is different, because if someone accused me of being a child molester, I don’t think that I could in good conscience endorse them to be leader of the free world. I don’t know, I mean, would you? It just — I think it’s a question of what you believe is common decency and basic decency, and you know, that was a completely unfounded allegation. And that kind of just blatant disregard for the truth, I think, is something that’s very scary and questionable in a leader for a candidate for the leader of the free world.”