FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said his Fairfax County home was vandalized this week.
He believes it was in response to the heated rhetoric stemming from the violence in Charlottesville this past weekend.
Carson posted on Facebook that his home and a neighbor’s were vandalized and hateful rhetoric had been written about President Donald Trump.
“Our house was toilet-papered and then they had painted ‘F Trump’ on it, as well,” Carson told NBC Washington.
He said the racial and heated political rhetoric has been on the rise, but the best thing to do is move forward.
“It’s not about pointing fingers, about who should have done what and when they should have done it and when they should have said it,” said Carson, alluding to criticism of President Donald Trump’s response to the recent violence.
“You can’t necessarily control the animosity and hatred of someone else. But, you can control how you react,” Carson said.
The best way to do that, Carson said, is to talk about the issues with Confederate monuments, not use violence as a means to express those feelings.
“We need to explain to people that many of the Confederate monuments that were put up were put up specifically during the Jim Crow era, specifically during the Civil Rights movement to make a statement,” he said.
NBC Washington reported that Carson said it was not up to Trump to bring the country together, but the responsibility of the American people.
Watch NBC Washington’s coverage:
