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?"
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