Ben Carson: Yeah, I Really Shouldn’t Have Said The Chinese Were In Syria
Over the past month or so, retired neurosurgeon and really bad stabber Ben Carson has seen his once promising White House run pretty much drop by the wayside. Roughly two months ago, Carson had overtaken Donald Trump as the party’s frontrunner, based largely on Evangelicals’ love for him, his soft-spoken nature and the fact that Republican voters really want an inexperienced ‘outsider’ as their nominee.
However, the terror attacks occurred in Paris and San Bernardino, and Carson’s complete lack of understanding when it comes to foreign policy really began to take its toll. (Trump going on the attack also didn’t help.) During the GOP debate hosted by Fox Business in November, Carson gave an incoherent, rambling, god-awful answer when asked about placing special forces in Syria. At one point in his nonsensical word salad, he stated that the Chinese were already in Syria fighting. In the days following the debate, he would defend his answer numerous times, to much derision.
In an interview conducted by the Washington Post’s Robert Costa and Steven Ginsberg that was published on Monday, the good doctor expressed some regret over those comments. At the same time, he stood by his initial assertion, claiming he was given info by people in the CIA and he had been somewhat vindicated in the aftermath due to China providing weapons and other hardware. Carson also stated that of course the Chinese weren’t in Syria since we’d see them there because of their distinct physical characteristics.
Ginsberg: So you feel like your standing has gone down a little bit because of the way you project yourself, as opposed to the policies that you’ve put forward? You’ve had some missteps on the latter.
Carson: In terms of missteps, I think that people simply can’t sometimes understand what I’m talking about. They say, “You couldn’t name any coalition members [to counter the Islamic State].” That’s absolutely absurd. What I was saying was that it’s the wrong question, who’s the first person you’re going to call. I was setting the stage for what you really needed to do. But everybody said, “Oh, he doesn’t know any of those countries down there.” That’s just craziness. As far as the China thing was concerned, I probably shouldn’t have said that. I said that on the basis of what some people in the CIA tell me. And of course, subsequent information came out that there is some Chinese [involvement in Syria]. But they made it seem like I’m saying there are a bunch of Chinese boots on the ground. Well, everybody knows that Chinese have physical characteristics that would make them pretty easy to identify in a setting like that. Give me a break. But they just jump on. That kind of stuff is frustrating. But it’s something that I’ve learned. You continue to learn that everything you say is going to be dissected and used in a negative way, if possible. I’m learning. I wish I didn’t have to learn that.
Good to see Carson is still bitching and moaning about the mean ol’ press, even while he is constantly courting it (i.e. this extended interview with a paper he’s whined about numerous times). Also, you have to like how he presents himself as a next-level philosopher who is just speaking way above everyone’s heads whenever it comes to policy and substantive issues. Honestly, he’s like a Xanax-addicted Trump.
