Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson argued it wasn’t necessary for President Obama “to bring race into it” while discussing GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s appeal and that the controversy over whether ISIS is using Trump to recruit is “much to do about nothing” on Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper.”
Carson stated, “I really don’t think it’s necessary to bring race into it. I know that there are a lot of people out there who are incredibly frustrated with what’s going on, and they don’t see anything being done about it. This is particularly true, amongst conservatives. you know, you look at the omnibus bill that was passed just recently, and you have, you know, a Republican congress. And yet there is climate change, and resettlement of refugees, and Obamacare, and Planned Parenthood, and sanctuary cities, and on and on it goes. And they say nobody represents us. And then at least, you know, you have somebody who may be bombastic and maybe isn’t 100% accurate, but at least they say, it’s different. And I think that’s what’s drawing people. I hope that those same people over the course of time will start listening very carefully to what’s being said by all of the candidates, and make a very appropriate choice.”
Earlier, Carson said that the controversy over Democratic candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying ISIS is using Trump as a recruiting tool is “much to do about nothing. You know, we have some really important things to talk about, and, you know, whether there are things that are used, and that you can prove that there are things that there are used, there’s no question that they use anything that they can against us. They use anything that they can possibly get their hands on to try to make their case, and particularly to go after the disaffected people of the world. And what we need to be thinking about is how do we give them a different message, the disaffected ones, so that they won’t be so attracted to those kinds of messages.”
He added, after Tapper brought the controversy of Trump’s claims of Muslims in the US celebrating on 9/11 and Republican candidate Carly Fiorina’s description of the Planned Parenthood videos, “I think we maybe tend to rely too much on videos. What we really ought to be talking about is, what are the real issues. Are there people in this country who are Muslims who celebrate things like that? And if there are, why is that the case? And what are we doing about it? That probably is a more important question. Are we saying and doing things that inflame the Muslim communities all over the world? And if the answer is yes, should we be talking about those things, and should we be trying to cut back on those things, and send a different message? So, I’m a big picture type of person. Let’s look at the real issues and go after those, rather than fanning the flames of things that really don’t matter that much.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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