Two Florida nurses have reportedly seen their licenses suspended after social media posts surfaced in which medical professionals vowed not to treat conservatives and mocked Trump administration officials — a controversy that drew a sharp warning from Dr. Ben Carson during an interview on The Todd Starnes Radio Show. Click here to listen to the entire interview.
The remarks, which included comments targeting White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and conservatives broadly, have ignited national concern about political bias seeping into the medical profession. During his opening monologue, radio host Todd Starnes said the revelations marked “a new level of evil.”
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced that Florida nurse Erik Martindale is no longer a registered nurse in the state.
This decision comes after a series of controversial social media posts in which Martindale declared he would refuse to administer anesthesia to patients who support the “MAGA” movement.
According to Uthmeier’s statement on X, the decision took effect immediately, writing that in Florida there is “zero tolerance for partisans who put politics above their ethical duty to treat patients with the respect and dignity they deserve.”
A second nurse, Lexie Lawler has also been banned from practicing nursing in Florida.
“Making statements that wish pain and suffering on anyone, when those statements are directly related to one’s practice, is an ethical red line we should not cross,” the attorney general said.
“The idea, ladies and gentlemen, that there are people within the medical community that want to hurt conservatives or not provide them with medical care — that is a new level of evil in my estimation,” Starnes told listeners.
Carson, a world-renowned neurosurgeon and chairman of the American Cornerstone Institute, said the issue strikes at the very heart of patient care.
ENDORSED BY TRUMP: Click to read “Twilight’s Last Gleaming: Can America Be Saved”
“I’ve always said my favorite people in the world are nurses,” Carson said. “Why? Because they’re the infantry of medicine. They’re the ones who are right on the front lines.”
He warned that once political hostility replaces compassion, patient outcomes suffer.
“When you lose that connection, you’ve lost an awful lot,” Carson said. “People who are relaxed and calm — many studies have shown — do better on every aspect of their medical care.”
Carson said the controversy reflects a broader societal breakdown fueled by division and manipulation.
“We have those who are trying to stir up trouble, who are trying to make people think that we’re enemies,” he said. “We are not each other’s enemies, but we’re being manipulated into thinking that we are. And that’s a very effective way to destroy a society.”
Carson said sends the right message praised the attorney general’s swift response.
“Any medical care professional who forgets our purpose is to help people… needs to be reminded sometimes with some stern measures, like losing their license,” Carson said. “They shouldn’t be taking care of patients if you feel that somebody is your enemy because they have a different thought process than you do. That’s absolute craziness.”
Carson also emphasized that bias has no place in medical training.
“If you have those kinds of biases, which will impact the way you treat patients, you’re in the wrong profession,” he said. “Get out now.”
Starnes noted the irony that patients may now feel compelled to wonder whether their political beliefs affect the care they receive — even in life-or-death situations.
“I’ve survived open-heart surgery,” he said. “It’s sort of alarming wondering, okay, am I getting the best medical care if my nurses and doctors maybe are not a conservative.”
Starnes recalled a moment from American history that captured medicine’s true calling.
“When President Reagan was nearly killed… he joked with the doctors, ‘Please tell me you’re Republicans,’” Starnes said. Carson agreed the doctor’s response was exactly right.
“That was the right answer,” Carson said. “You’re a professional, and that means something, and you take an oath to do your best for everybody.”
“If we don’t stop and think about where this is leading,” Carson warned, “our destruction is guaranteed.”
