Ben Carson’s most controversial beliefs and statements
November 6, 2015
Sometimes even neurosurgeons make questionable moves.
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson’s campaign admitted that he never applied
to the prestigious U.S. Military Academy at West Point despite previous
statements to the contrary. Now the candidate claims that the offer of a
full scholarship was more informal in nature.
But
the dubious storyline is only the most recent political misstep or
controversial viewpoint to come to light since the retired doctor soared
toward the top of the polls for the GOP nomination.
Here’s a look back at some of Carson’s more contentious statements over the years.
1998: Egyptian pyramids were built to store grain
Carson does not believe that the Egyptian pyramids were built as tombs for the country’s pharaohs.
“My
own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain,”
Carson said while delivering a commencement address at Andrews
University, a Michigan college affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist
Church. “Now all the archaeologists think that they were made for the
pharaohs’ graves. But, you know, it would have to be something awfully
big when you stop and think about it, and I don’t think it’d just
disappear over the course of time to store that much grain.”
After BuzzFeed posted the video on Wednesday, CBS News reached out to Carson to see if he still disagreed with archaeologists on this point.
“It’s
still my belief, yes,” Carson said. “The pyramids were made in a way
that they had hermetically sealed compartments. You wouldn’t need
hermetically sealed compartments for a sepulcher. You would need that if
you were trying to preserve grain for a long period of time.
2011-present: Evolution is a lie encouraged by Satan
Even
though he is a retired doctor, Carson rejects Charles Darwin’s theory
of evolution by natural selection, which is the central unifying
principle of modern biology.
As
a Seventh-day Adventist, Carson believes in the Young Earth creationist
theory that God created all life on Earth about 6,000 years ago. But
Carson does not stop there. He has implied that the devil is behind
evolution.
“I
personally believe that this theory that Darwin came up with was
something that was encouraged by the adversary, and it has become what
is scientifically, politically correct,” Carson said during a speech at
an event called Celebration of Creation in 2011.
During an interview with the Adventist Review, Carson said God and evolution are mutually exclusive and that accepting evolution eliminates morality.
“For
if there is no such thing as moral authority, you can do anything you
want. You make everything relative, and there’s no reason for any of our
higher values,” he said.
Carson later backpedaled and admitted that evolutionists could be moral, accusing others of taking his words out of context.
Nearly 500 Emory University professors, students and alumni signed a letter voicing concerns over Carson’s creationist beliefs
when he was selected to deliver a commencement address in 2012. They
feared his medical accomplishments would lead others to view him as
someone who “understands science.”
October 2013: Obamacare is slavery
Carson compared President Obama’s Affordable Care Act to slavery during a speech at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., in October 2013.
“You
know, Obamacare is really, I think, the worst thing that has happened
in this nation since slavery,“ Carson said. “And it is in a way, it is
slavery in a way, because it is making all of us subservient to the
government, and it was never about health care. It was about control.”
February 2015: There are no rules for war
Carson said there should not be rules for how the U.S. Armed Forces conducts itself during times of war.
“Our
military needs to know that they’re not going to be prosecuted when
they come back because somebody has said, ‘You did something that was
politically incorrect,’” he said during an appearance on Fox News.
“There’s no such thing as a politically correct war. We need to grow
up. We need to mature. If you’re going to have rules for war, you should
just have a rule that says no war. Other than that, you know, we have
to win. Our life depends on it.”
March 2015: Homosexuality is a choice
Carson said that people can “absolutely” choose whether to be gay or straight and pointed to prison to illustrate his point.
“A
lot of people who go into prison go into prison straight, and when they
come out they’re gay. So did something happen while they were in
there?” he said during an interview on CNN.
Later
that day, Carson released a statement apologizing for his comment,
saying that it does not completely reflect his stance on gay issues.
“I
do not pretend to know how every individual came to their sexual
orientation,” the statement reads. “I regret that my words to express
that concept were hurtful and divisive. For that I apologize
unreservedly to all that were offended.”
September 2015: There are ‘way too many’ vaccines
Carson
pointed out that numerous studies show there is no correlation between
vaccines and autism when asked about the issue during the second
Republican presidential debate in September.
But
the retired pediatric surgeon toned down his defense of vaccines a bit
by saying that fewer vaccines should be administered, much to the
chagrin of the medical community.
“It
is true that we are probably giving way too many in too short a period
of time,” Carson said. “And a lot of pediatricians now recognize that
and I think are cutting down on the number and the proximity in which
those are done, and I think that’s appropriate.”
November 2015: The Founding Fathers had no political experience
Carson,
who has never held elective office, invoked the Founding Fathers to
make the case that political experience is not the most important
quality in choosing a president.
“Are
we sure political experience is what we need. [sic] Every signer of the
Declaration of Independence had no elected office experience,” he wrote on Facebook Wednesday.
This is patently untrue.
The Washington Post, among others, swiftly pointed out that more than half of the signers had elected office experience.
Afterward,
Carson’s original post was updated to say that they had “no federal
elected office experience,” which is obvious because there was not yet a
federal government.
November 2015: Transgender people ‘make everybody else uncomfortable’ in public restrooms
When Fusion reporter Jorge Ramos
asked Carson if transgender people should be able to choose whether
they use men’s or women’s restrooms, the conservative leader suggested
installing a third option.
“How
about we have a transgender bathroom?” he asked. “It is not fair for
them to make everybody else uncomfortable. It’s one of the things that I
don’t particularly like about the movement. I think everybody has equal
rights but I’m not sure that anybody should have extra rights.”
November 2015: I was offered a full scholarship to West Point
Politico reported Friday
that West Point has no record of Carson applying for admission, let
alone being extended an offer, as he claimed in his book “Gifted Hands.”
Theresa
Brinkerhoff, a West Point spokeswoman, told the political website that
the academy has no records indicating that he even started the
application process.
“If he chose to pursue [the application process], then we would have records indicating such,” she said.
When
confronted with this information, the Carson campaign reportedly
conceded that he never applied for a position at the academy.
Later that day, Carson told the New York Times that the offer was informal.
“I
don’t remember all the specific details. Because I had done so
extraordinarily well, you know, I was told that someone like me — they
could get a scholarship to West Point. But I made it clear I was going
to pursue a career in medicine,” he said to the New York paper.
“It was, you know, an informal ‘with a record like yours we could easily get you a scholarship to West Point.’”
With additional reporting by Yahoo News’ Chris Wilson and Gabby Kauffman.
