Ben Carson on Debate Performance: ‘Made It Very Clear that I Do Know About Foreign Policy’

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — GOP presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson spoke with reporters in the spin room after the GOP primary debate in Las Vegas, saying that he was happy with his performance because he had time to make some points on foreign policy.

“I got an opportunity to get some points out and to make it very clear that I do know about foreign policy,” Carson said. “Obviously, I’d like to have even more time to talk about it, but at least it dispels some of the rumors.”

Carson was referencing a report which alleged that he didn’t have a strong understanding or “grasp” of foreign policy.

He was also asked about the dispute between Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on the NSA’s collection of metadata.

“If he had asked me what my opinion was… then I would have weighed in on it, but I don’t want to get into their thing,” Carson clarified, before telling the reporters his thoughts on the balance between national security and privacy rights:

My opinion is that the Fourth Amendment is extremely important and we need to make sure we preserve it, but at the same time we need to fight terrorism and we need to engage in a conversation with both things sitting at the top of the list. How do we create a policy that allows us to have quick access to information that will lead us to be able to prevent terrorist acts, but at the same time preserve the privacy of the American people? You’re not going to do that unless you put those two things up side by side and you have that conversation.

Carson also discussed how he was asked during the debate whether or not he would be strong or tough enough to bomb an area that ISIS controlled where there may be civilians, including children.

“I always do something called the best-worse analysis, you ask four questions,” Carson said, explaining, “What’s the best thing that happens if you do this? What’s the worse thing that happens if you do it? What’s the best thing that happens if you don’t do it? And, what’s the worse thing that happens if you don’t do it?”

“You answer those four questions in the kind of situation that you just posed, you will come up with the right answer. There may not be a perfect answer. There may not be an answer that says no one will be hurt and everybody will be happy, but there will be an answer that says only this many people will be hurt and most people will be happy. That’s what you have to get to,” Carson concluded.