Ben Carson to Katie Couric on stabbing, Syria, and Trump
In an exclusive interview, Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric asked Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson about questions surrounding his biography, his rival Donald Trump and his comments on foreign policy.
On Trump continuing to call him “pathological,” Carson told Couric: “Well, I guess someone needs to tell him what ‘pathological’ actually means. Because it doesn’t mean that it can’t be cured. So — perhaps some of his advisers can actually go talk to some people who understand what that term means and educate him until he wouldn’t say things like that.”
On Carson’s refusal to give the name of the person he tried to stab as a teenager, he told Couric he would reveal the name with conditions: “I do have this deal to make. If the media will promise that they will not bother this person or any of the other people, and if they promise that they will be honest, truthful and apply everything to everyone equally from now on, I will reveal the truth. Is that fair?”
Carson went on to say of the media: “People are calling me constantly who’ve been — associated with me and telling me how they’re being harassed by the media, how people are calling them, people are showing up on their doorsteps with cameras. And, you know, they don’t appreciate it.”
Couric asked Carson about his friend Alfonso Costa, who was convicted of defrauding insurance companies for more than $40,000 in 2008. Carson served as a character witness for Costa despite writing in his 2013 book, “America the Beautiful,” that anyone found guilty of health care fraud should be punished severely, lose his medical license and go to prison for no less than 10 years.
“I’m just gonna say that, you know, he’s been my closest, if not my closest friend in the world. I know his heart. He’s a person who is extraordinarily honest,” said Carson, who continued, “I have no doubts about Alfonso Costa at this time.” When pressed, the candidate said, “I really don’t want to discuss this case.”
The interview also focused on foreign policy, with Couric questioning Carson on his recent assertion that China was playing a role in the ongoing civil war in Syria. Carson insisted China was supplying “a lot of military equipment,” including “radar and sophisticated monitoring systems,” and that those systems needed Chinese support. He went on to tell Couric that his campaign “will be putting out information” on these claims shortly.
Carson was also asked about his lack of foreign policy experience and responded by saying his rivals had very little of their own. “When you look at the field of people — I don’t know of anybody who has a great deal of foreign policy experience who’s running for president right now,” he said.
