Reprinted with permission from AlterNet.

Though there have been many disturbing and demeaning defenses put forward to defend Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh against accusations of sexual assault made by professor Christine Blasey Ford, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson pushed clearly the most absurd conspiracy theory yet about the allegations Friday night.

While speaking at the Values Voters Summit, Carson said that the claims against Kavanaugh are the result of a centuries-old socialist conspiracy plot aiming to take control of the centers of power in the United States, according to CNBC.

“If you really understand the big picture of what’s going on, then what’s going on with Kavanaugh will make perfectly good sense to you,” Carson said, according to the report. “There’ve been people in this country for a very long time, going all the way back to the Fabians, people who’ve wanted to fundamentally change this country.”

CNBC explained:

The term “Fabians” refers to the Fabian Society, a British socialist organization that was founded in the 19th century, and which today functions as part of the UK’s Labour Party. An American chapter of the Fabian society was established in 1895 in Boston, but it is no longer active in the United States.

He reportedly said the forces behind the conspiracy seek to control the media, education and the courts (no explanation about why they don’t want to control the executive branch or the legislature of the government — or, for that matter, industry). Carson believes they took control of the first two spheres, according to the report, but Trump’s election denied them the third.

According to CNBC, Carson described the forces as “wet hornets, just completely lost control off the deep end, and the further they get away from being able to control the courts the more desperate they become. … They don’t see themselves as being able to control the courts for another generation, so what is left? Chaos and destruction.”

As patently ridiculous as Carson’s comments are, it’s deeply troubling to hear them from the mouth of one of the senior-most officials in the U.S. government. But this isn’t the first time Carson has revealed his conspiratorial and delusional side — he was previously widely mocked for the ahistorical claim that the Egyptian pyramids were used to store grain.