HOUSTON, Texas — In an apparent hit at President Obama, Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson, told attendees at the Harris County GOP Lincoln-Reagan dinner if “you wanted to destroy America, you would do it from inside.”
The soft spoken candidate then detailed exactly how that could be done. The examples he gave were strikingly familiar to what has occurred during the Obama administration.
Carson was in Houston to speak to Republicans at their annual Lincoln-Reagan dinner, and to participate in the GOP debate at the University of Houston on Thursday.
Dr. Carson said the first thing you would do to destroy the country would be to drive wedges between people. He said you would do so, not only on racial lines, but also with women, age, religion, and Republicans and Democrats.
Carson said you would bring the country to financial ruin by spending money at “unsustainable levels.” You would also bring people in from other countries and put them on public benefits.
He said you would weaken the military, “gut personnel” and reduce military strength to “historic lows.”
The neurosurgeon called the failure to maintain the electrical grid a vulnerability for cyber attacks, the “next weapon of mass destruction.”
Dr. Carson said the country is in trouble. He said Thomas Jefferson said it would be so when Americans were no longer paying attention. Carson urged that America was at this stage and said Americans were busy “watching Dancing with the Stars.”
The presidential candidate said he liked coming to Texas “because there are a lot of people here with common sense.” He graciously thanked Senator Cruz for his address, and for his service to the country. The Texas senator spoke to the crowd right before Carson took the stage. Dr. Carson also introduced his wife Candy.
Kristi Schiller, a Republican and founder of K9s4COPS told Breitbart Texas she “really enjoyed Dr. Ben Carson.” She said she hoped he would progress to a cabinet post in the White House. Schiller called Carson a “bridge builder” and added, “Unfortunately, we live in a world in which ego-based politics has replaced common sense philosophy.”
Referring to Carson, the philanthropist continued, “There is just something about him that I really enjoy listening to his Mensa humor. I mean the man is a genius, he separated Siamese twins.” She quipped, “Of course, I am not sure he could separate some of the egos in D.C.”
Schiller told Breitbart Texas she “would love to see Carson as the next James Baker” and added, “He could instill that calming force and voice of reason back into the second oldest profession.”
During other parts of his speech, Dr. Carson took hits at the media saying “media pundits” like to manipulate their audience and to tell people what to think, and who to vote for. He said they have mischaracterized his views on public benefits and other issues. He claimed the liberal media has reported he would get rid of public assistance but said he would not. He said he was for “safety nets” and “ladders to climb out of dependency.”
The pachyderms in the room responded positively when he said Americans have gone from a “can-do society” to a “what can you do for me society.”
He also pointed to the country’s prison population and said “we can not afford to waste any of our people.”
As to the nation’s debt, Carson invoked Thomas Jefferson saying it is immoral to pass debt on to the next generation. He said that interest on the nation’s debt was running at $10 million a day. He pointed to the promise of free college by Democratic Socialist candidate Bernie Sanders saying, to do so would bring the country “off the fiscal cliff.”
Carson said he has operated on infants in a mother’s womb and added, “No one can convince me” that this is just “a meaningless mass of cells.”
During his speech to Republicans in Harris County, Dr. Carson said that people ask him if it is worth it to run for president. He answered “No,” not if I was doing it for just me. He said the answer is a “resounding yes if running for president for others.”
Dr. Carson noted that there were 25 million conservatives who did not vote in the last presidential election. He told the Republicans at the event that if they do not vote, “You are voting for the other side.”
Lana Shadwick is a writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. She has served as a prosecutor and an associate judge in Texas. Follow her on Twitter @LanaShadwick2