Seth Meyers wonders just how prepared Ben Carson is to lead HUD's hurricane relief efforts

Seth Meyers.

As people in Texas, Florida, and other states affected by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma start to rebuild, many will have to rely on assistance from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and that's slightly worrisome, Seth Meyers said, considering who's at the helm.

Before entering politics, HUD Secretary Ben Carson was a gifted and respected neurosurgeon, but that doesn't make a person qualified to run a major government agency, Meyers said on Tuesday's Late Night. Carson has made statements that run counter to the organization's core mission, said people shouldn't feel too comfortable in public housing (announcing this after getting stuck inside an elevator at a Miami housing complex), and has yet to fill several positions at HUD. To really make his point, Meyers showed clips from a semi-bonkers speech Carson made at HUD in March, where he discussed how as a kid he loved going to the doctor to "smell the alcohol swabs," and marveled at his ability to make a hole in the side of a person's head to put depth electrodes into their hippocampus. "What does that have to do with Housing and Urban Development?" Meyers asked. "How many alcohol swabs did you smell?"

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.