Ben Carson used his career as a neurosurgeon to defend his ability to lead the United States on foreign policy matters in an interview Sunday.
Pressed by Fox News’ Chris Wallace on whether he has the expertise necessary to act as the nation’s commander-in-chief, Carson said he has made more life-and-death decisions than any of the other candidates vying for the White House.
“I think of all the people running, I’ve probably had the most experience making critical life-and-death decisions,” Carson said. “I have a record of solving complex problems.”
After spending months as the highest polling candidate behind Donald Trump, Carson has recently fallen in polls as more voters have questioned his foreign policy experience after a terrorist attack in Paris. Support for Carson now hovers around that of Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. All three are trailing Trump by around 20 points.
When asked about the threat of radical Islamic terrorism, Carson said the U.S. needs a “powerful strategy” where terrorists are stripped of their ability to transmit money and their activity on the Internet is better monitored.
There has been an increased focus on terrorism in the U.S. over the last days, as authorities have tried to figure out what motivated a Southern California couple who shot and killed 14 people at a holiday party on Wednesday. The female shooter posted to Facebook a message pledging alliance to the Islamic State.
“We’re going to have to do a much better job of monitoring the Internet and the things that cause people to be radicalized,” Carson said. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t be attacking their servers and trying to disrupt their messaging.”
