He released a statement late Monday in response to questions about his comments, saying he “always stand[s] ready to serve this great President and the United States of America.”

Carson, who oversaw a campaign to weaken fair housing enforcement and advocated dramatic budget cuts at the department, is the only black member of Trump’s cabinet – a point Gizzi raised as he asked him about former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen telling Congress last week that Trump is a racist.

“I think Cohen is trying to ingratiate himself to the people who hate Trump,” Carson said. “I’ve never seen anything that even remotely would remind me of racists, and believe me, I recognize a racist when I see them.”

Carson drew criticism from Democrats for dialing back the department’s efforts to fight housing discrimination after postponing the implementation of the Obama-era Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule, a move that prompted civil rights groups to file suit.

“I don’t have any problem with affirmative action or integration -- I have no problem with that at all,” Carson said during his Senate confirmation hearing in 2017. “But I do have a problem with people on high dictating it when they have no idea what’s going on in an area.”

Last year, HUD leaders also floated changing the mission statement to omit references to discrimination and inclusivity, provoking an outcry among housing advocates on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act.

Carson, a former neurosurgeon, has often seemed most at home talking about the health effects of substandard housing, riffing on the impacts of lead paint and mold on the developing brain.

He twice touted proposals to slash HUD’s budget that were quickly rejected by Congress, which instead boosted funding for popular agency programs that the Trump administration had sought to scrap.

And while Carson has been one of the lower-profile Cabinet secretaries, his tenure included a brush with scandal when he ordered a $31,000 dining table for his office suite. Carson and HUD officials offered shifting and contradictory explanations
for the order, which was canceled after the price tag became public last year.

“I can tell you what I said, I can tell you what I did; I do not intend to be responsible for what anyone else said,” Carson told Congress of the initial explanation from his spokesman that career employees made the purchase without his knowledge.

Carson told House Appropriators that he had left the table decision to his wife and was unaware of the cost until he saw it in news reports. Federal law prohibits the head of a department spending more than $5,000 on refurnishing an office without getting advance approval from Congress.

Appearing to blame his wife for the table controversy wasn’t the first time the soft-spoken physician committed a gaffe.

In his first speech to agency staff, Carson caused a minor uproar when he suggested that slaves brought to America in chains were “immigrants” who dreamed of better lives for their children. He called poverty “a state of mind” in a radio interview. And he frequently referred to God and religion in his speeches to the agency, to the chagrin of employees and industry analysts seeking guidance on his housing policy priorities.

Carson faced scrutiny from the moment his name was floated for the position overseeing HUD’s roughly 8,000 employees and nearly $50 billion budget. He initially resisted joining the administration, with confidant Armstrong Williams telling the Hill that “Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience, he’s never run a federal agency“ — an odd admission, since Carson had sought the Republican presidential nomination.

In his confirmation hearing, Carson referred to his experience growing up poor in Detroit, telling the Senate Banking panel, “I understand housing insecurity.” He was confirmed on a 58-41 vote.

Carson had been a Trump adviser during the 2016 campaign after dropping out of the primary race.