Ben Carson endorsed Donald Trump on Friday, just a few days removed from suggesting that his behavior in the 2016 campaign hasn’t been presidential.
The retired pediatric neurosurgeon said in announcing his endorsement that he and the New York celebrity businessman have moved past their rivalry and “buried the hatchet.” Carson, who spent much of his campaign pleading for more civility and focus on substance, was singing a different tune last week, during a news conference to discuss his exit from the presidential race.
Asked by reporters to explain Trump’s success in the campaign given his lack of policy details and penchant for personal attacks, Carson said, essentially, that American voters have low standards for the candidates they support and deem fit for the White House, and how those candidates conduct themselves.
“It doesn’t say that much about him; we already knew who the Donald was,” Carson said. “It says a lot about us and, what are our criteria and our standards for choosing a leader. And, you know, it’s not just Donald Trump. It’s a lot of things that have been said by a lot of people, which are not particularly presidential things, including on the Democrat side, including a lot of actions.”
Carson then went on to say that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s status as the Democratic front-runner is another example of voters’ willingness to look the other way when presidential candidates misbehave.
“What does it say about a society, where you have a secretary of state who comes back with the bodies of people killed at Benghazi, and says to the families, it’s that video, and she knows better,” he said. “What do we say about somebody who was first lady for eight years, and a senator and secretary of state, who doesn’t have the judgment to decide what is classified and what isn’t?”
“And, for all of Americans, yeah, no problem. What does that say about us?” Carson added, during a March 5 news conference at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center near Washington, just after addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference.
Back in the fall, Carson was the first Republican to rise in the polls and threaten Trump’s otherwise consistent spot atop the leader board. At one point, Carson led Trump in Iowa and in some national polls. The reality television star responded with merciless attacks that questioned his religious faith and compared him to a child molester.
“It’s in the book that he’s got a pathological temper,” Trump told CNN in November. “That’s a big problem because you don’t cure that … as an example: child molesting. You don’t cure these people. You don’t cure a child molester. There’s no cure for it. Pathological, there’s no cure for that.”
Also in November, Trump mocked Carson’s personal recounting of his conversion to Christianity. “He goes into the bathroom for a couple of hours and he comes out and now he’s religious?” he said. “Give me a break … It doesn’t happen that way.”
These and other personal digs at his various opponents haven’t stalled Trump’s rise. Carson endorsed the billionaire real estate mogul anyway, and he now leads the GOP field in the hunt for enough delegates to secure the nomination and could strengthen his hold on the top spot with victories Tuesday in Florida and Ohio.
Carson is a permanent Florida resident and will presumably be casting a vote for Trump.
