Dr. Ben Carson took issue Wednesday with reports that he endorsed Donald Trump in exchange for potential spot in his future cabinet.
In an interview with the Washington Examiner after Trump’s multiple victories on Tuesday, Carson blamed the media for misconstruing his initial remarks. Carson had told NewsmaxTV on Monday that he would serve at least in an “advisory capacity” in a future Trump administration, but declined to delve further into details about a possible cabinet position, adding that those issues are still very fluid.
“Basically, we both have the same goal, and that is to save America for the next generation. We agreed that in some capacity that we’d be working together to do that,” Carson said in a phone interview Wednesday morning.
“People want to take that and make it into a quid pro quo. But it’s not a quid pro quo by any stretch of the imagination — nor would I ever ask such a thing. That’s enhancement of what I said,” Carson said, adding that it’s “absolutely” false for anyone to say he endorsed Trump in return for any such position.
The response came after Carson told NewsmaxTV host Steve Malzberg that he didn’t want to “reveal any details” about a spot in Trump’s possible administration and that the real estate mogul wasn’t his first choice, pointing to other “scenario’s” in the race that are no longer available. The famed neurosurgeon told the Examiner that the other scenario he was looking for was for himself to become president.
“Is there another scenario that I would have preferred? Yes, but that scenario isn’t available,” Carson told the host, responding in the affirmative when asked if he was referring to another candidate.
“I will be doing things as well… Certainly in an advisory capacity [in Trump’s administration],” Carson said of a possible spot in an administration. “We haven’t handled out all the details but it is very important that we work together in this country… Again, I’m not going to reveal any details about it right now because all of this is still very liquid.”
