Likely Republican candidate Dr. Ben Carson has garnered significant grassroots support this year, with far-right activists clamoring for his potential 2016 candidacy for president. The retired pediatric neurosurgeon has rallied the conservative base with his occasionally extreme rhetoric and an April GQ profile suggests he isn’t toning it down as he gains more national exposure.
Here’s the top four moments from the lengthy profile that offered new insights into the man who wants to be Commander-in-Chief.
Obama’s a well-dressed ‘psychopath’
Observing the president’s State of the Union address, Carson declares that the president is a “psychopath.”
“Like most psychopaths,” Carson grumbled after his business manager remarked that he looked “elegant” in a white shirt and tie. “That’s why they’re successful. That’s the way they look. They all look great.”
Carson thinks black voters aren’t aware of Obama’s policies
“I remember one of the man-on-the-street interviews … where he went to Harlem and he was asking people about Obama’s policies, except they were all McCain’s policies,” Carson told GQ. “And they were like, ‘Oh yeah, it’s brilliant!’ ‘What do you think of his vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin?’ ‘Oh, she’s the best!’ I think a lot of people are like that.””
(Carson identifies these moments as having aired on Bill O’Reilly’s show, but Fox News told GQ they never did; a reader later identified them as from “The Howard Stern Show.”)
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Israel’s government is too complicated
Never having held elective office or served in the military, Carson lacks foreign policy credentials but has said repeatedly that he’s working to study up on those issues and a recent trip he made abroad to Israel is covered in the GQ profile.
During a conversation with a guide about the country’s government, Carson remarks “It sounds complex … Why don’t they just adopt the system we have?”
He’s only a Republican because he’s running for office
“If I weren’t thinking about running for office, I would remain an independent,” Carson told GQ, describing his journey from “radical, wild-eyed, left-wing Democrat” to Republican during Ronald Reagan’s presidency to becoming an Independent following the impeachment of Bill Clinton, in protest of adulterous’ Republicans’ outrage.
Jane Timm