A day after Ben Carson said that he would not “advocate” for a Muslim president, his campaign doubled down.
In an interview with CNN’s “New Day” Monday, Carson’s business manager Armstrong Williams called the famed neurosurgeon’s remarks an “inconvenient truth,” but a truth nonetheless as the campaign continues to respond to the candidate’s Sunday comments. Carson dropped slightly to third in the Washington Examiner’s power rankings.
“He’s thinking like someone who loves America first, who wants to protect America,” Williams told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota.
“He understands there are tenets of Islam that hate Jews, will kill homosexuals, will kill Muslims, do not advocate the belief and value systems that made America into the country it is today,” Williams said. “It may have been an inconvenient truth but it is a truth.”
“This is why he’s not a politician, this is why he’s not trying to be politically correct,” Williams said. “This is America, it’s a place of freedom of speech.”
“This is not an issue of religion to Dr. Carson. This is an issue of one’s belief system of how they would govern. Your beliefs, what you believe in, how you look upon people, how you value people is dictated by what you believe.”
The two ended up battling over Carson’s invocation of religion with the statement. Camerota pointed to Carson’s defense of Kim Davis and his own propping up of religion in the campaign — a charge Williams attempted to swat away, pointing to Islam and how it does not dictate a separation of church and state, unlike the U.S.
“Dr. Carson has made it clear even with the situation in Kentucky, that this is a nation about the rule of law, and that he embraced and supported the Supreme Court ruling,” Williams said. “He may have thought that they should have shown more [com]passion instead of putting her in jail, but absolutely we are a nation of laws, and Dr. Carson’s religion would never get in the way of upholding the rule of law of this land ever. He is very clear on that.”
Carson’s comments came on the back of GOP front-runner Donald Trump’s refusal to talk down a supporter who made anti-Muslim comments while asking a question at a campaign event last week.
