Ben Carson winning the presidency in 2016 is something Ben Carson believes in.
“I certainly believe that that is a possibility,” the former neurosurgeon and Republican presidential candidate said when asked by George Stephanopoulos if he is starting to believe he can be president in 2016.
However, voters should look at everything said by every candidate before making up their minds who they want to be president, Carson added.
Like most of the GOP presidential candidates, with the notable exception of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Carson said if it “was necessary” he would put U.S. military boots on the ground in Iraq to combat the Islamic State. “But I would do that in consultation with some of our top military people, who, I think, have been, to some degree, disregarded,” he said.
The use of combat troops should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, said Carson. However, the threat posed by the Islamic State could justify ground combat in the long run, he added, because “as ISIS is growing and some of the other radical jihadists, their intention is to destroy us and our way of life.”
Carson sought the middle ground between Paul’s assertion that Republican foreign policy hawks caused the rise of the Islamic State, and the Republican position that Obama’s abrupt withdrawal of troops from Iraq was the cause, saying: “I believe that, you know, we kind of stirred things up when we went in there.”
“But when we stirred [Iraq] up even worse was when we left there and left an unstable situation,” he said.
Once considered a long-shot presidential contender, Carson is one of five Republicans tied for first in a new Quinnipiac poll of Republican voters released Thursday.
