Ben Carson: My Surge in the Polls ‘Not Particularly Surprising’
KELLY: “But we begin tonight with a man who has shaken up the polls surging right to the top, retired Pediatric Neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson. Dr. Carson, good to see you tonight. So how do you see you.“
CARSON: “Thank you.”
KELLY: “Your strategy for tomorrow night's debate given the help you gave yourself in the last presidential debate?”
CARSON: “Well, I don't think that my strategy is going to change at all. It's going to be to tell the truth and to talk about, you know, my vision for America which I think is something that a lot of people resonate with. You know, the polls are not particularly surprising, given the fact that I'm out there amongst the people a lot. And I have been seeing the level of enthusiasm and the size of the crowds for quite some time. It hasn't really been reported on, but we have seen it so this is not very surprising.”
KELLY: “You talk about your vision. And this is something that you have written an op-ed on in The Journal. And you come out and say in this piece ‘America needs a new paradigm. A paradigm that emphasizes that strength comes from within each of us. That to change our country, we must embrace old-fashioned values such as respect, compassion, and responsibility.’ What do you mean by that?”
CARSON: “Well, I mean, you know, America is an incredible country. By far the greatest country the world has ever known. Before we came along, people did things the same way for thousands of years. Within 200 years of the advent of America, men were walking on the moon. And we reached a pinnacle much faster than anybody else and a much higher pinnacle. And that was because of the values that we manifested. You know, there are a lot of people who like to look at us and they say yes, but you guys had slavery and you hurt the Native Americans and you had Japanese internment camps. I don't deny that those things occurred but we learned from them. We have people inhabiting this country and any time you have people inhabit it, you are going to have imperfections, but you are able to get beyond those things to learn from those things and move on. And that's what we did. And as a result, we have a country that had the highest standards of living and was the one who really created a higher standard for the rest of the world.”
KELLY: “Your emphasis on compassion is something your colleagues, your former colleagues at Johns Hopkins University, tells us has been part of your character for a while. This comes from blurb offered on your book, from the president of John Hopkins University Steven Mueller at the time. ‘What makes Dr. Carson extraordinary is his compassion, modesty and sensitivity. He serves as a splendid example for young people.’ Compassion in some conservative circles raises alarm bells of he is going to be a big spender. Is that -- how do you mean it?”
CARSON: “I mean it in terms of us being willing to invest in our fellow man. You know, America has always been an extraordinarily compassionate nation. You know, we were the impetus for socialism because the Europeans looked over here and they saw the Carnegies and the Mellons, and the Fords and the Kellogg's and the Vanderbilts and, you know, they said those people have too much money. We need to have an overarching government. But what they didn't realize about those names and many others is that instead of just hoarding money, they built the infrastructure of this nation, the transcontinental railroads, the sea ports, the textile mills, the factories, providing the mechanism for the most powerful and dynamic middle-class the world has ever seen, which rapidly propelled us to the pinnacle. And they also built libraries and museums and charitable.” [Crosstalk]
KELLY: “But you know how people feel now.”
CARSON: “Organizations.”
KELLY: “They feel -- so many feel resentful of the rich. And they -- you know, they feel they are the haves and the have-nots. And I know you have been focused in particular on many folks who live in have-not communities. One of the things you write in your piece is the family unit. That that's what we need to be focused on right now, the family unit. That most crucial inculcator of values has disintegrated and you write, ‘I'm afraid we are on the front end of a lost generation.’ How does the 2016 presidential race factor in to addressing that?”
CARSON: “Well, I, for one, will be talking about it very substantially about the things that impact the family structure in a negative way. Many of those things are considered politically incorrect because every family structure is supposed to be of equal value than the PC world. But evidence demonstrates that it is not the case. And we need to be looking at what is driving some of the things that Bernie Sanders likes to talk about, like the big income gap. It is not because wealthy people are wealthy. It is -- one of the reasons is because we have so many regulations. And every regulation cost in terms of goods and services, but who gets disproportionately hit by that? The poor people and the middle class. Nobody is really talking about that and that is a very substantial problem.”
KELLY: “Somebody is calling so I have got to let him go. It may be Barbara Walters. She also gave you a nice blurb for your book. Dr. Carson, it's great to see you. We will be watching tomorrow night.”
CARSON: “All right. Thank you, Megyn.”
KELLY: “All the best.”
