With the race for the Republican nomination down to three and Donald Trump in a commanding position delegatewise to snag the party’s presidential nod, Dr. Ben Carson believes it is time for Trump to put his head down and look forward to November.
Carson, who endorsed Trump last Friday in a press conference in Florida, told the Washington Examiner Wednesday that it’s time for the Republican front-runner to begin his “pivot” toward the general election, backing his decision to skip next week’s debate. The famed neurosurgeon also echoed Trump’s claim that supporters would “riot” if he loses the nomination at the convention this summer if he does not reach the requisite 1,237 number of delegates.
“It’s time to begin to pivot,” Carson told The Examiner in an interview Wednesday “He did what was necessary to do in order to be in the position where he is, and it is what it is. This is where we are as a nation. The question is can we pivot and really start to seriously delve into the issues that are destroying us … these are big, big issues.”
Earlier Wednesday, Trump announced that he intended to skip Monday’s previously planned Republican debate, which Fox News was set to host, in favor of a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — which comes as he continues to focus down the road to a potential general election matchup with Hillary Clinton. Shortly thereafter, Fox announced the debate had been cancelled after Ohio Gov. John Kasich said he would not attend if Trump didn’t.
“There’s way to many debates,” Carson said, repeating what Trump said earlier Wednesday. “It’s absurd. Debates have kind of become a sideshow. I don’t criticize anybody for participating, I don’t criticize anybody for not participating.”
Despite the pivot, Carson admitted a “tough fight” with Sen. Ted Cruz lies directly ahead, with the Texas senator being the only GOP candidate who could challenge Trump in the delegate count. After feuding with Cruz in the past, the former neurosurgeon praised Cruz as a “formidable competitor,” but dismissed his chances to beat Clinton in the fall.
“It’s going to be a tough fight, there’s no question about it. Sen. Cruz is a very intelligent man and a formidable competitor. The problem that I see with him in a general election is that he has very little crossover appeal — very little appeal to moderates and independents, and I just think it’s going very hard to win the election with just the conservative base,” Carson said.
According to CNN, Trump’s 662 delegates tops Cruz’s 408. Kasich, meanwhile, sits back in the pack with 143, having won 66 of them Tuesday night with his victory in Ohio. With Trump on a collision course to attain the GOP’s delegate threshold to win the nod, his campaign and supporters have followed his lead and called for him to take the nomination without contest if he’s close to the marker, with Carson warning the GOP of the consequences if they do not.
“It should start providing some degree of clarity for both parties, really,” Carson said referring to Tuesday’s results. “I think the Democrats concede that it’s going to be Hillary barring some incredible occurrence. And the Republicans can see that Trump is probably going to wind up, if he doesn’t have the 1237, very close.”
“[Republicans] are going to have to make a decision: Are they going to stop trying to destroy him, or are they going to go for a contested convention, find somebody they find more acceptable and lose everything?” Carson asked. “The millions of new voters that are coming in and the level of enthusiasm would completely disappear if they did that. If they thwart the will of the people, the people will not support them.”
Carson also reacted to comments from Trump earlier in the day, in which he said there would be “riots” if Trump was robbed of the nomination. Agreeing with the sentiment, Carson agreed that there would be “enormous upheaval” within the GOP if that were to take place.
“I don’t know if there would be literal riots. I think there would be enormous upheaval in the party at that point,” Carson said. “Anyone who is really thinking about the future deeply should be able to understand that if you take the chance of destroying the unity of the party, you virtually guarantee the election to Hillary. It has much more in the way of implications than it ever has before because she’ll get 2-4 Supreme Court picks, and the balance will shift and America as we know it will change. That’s really what they have to be thinking about. Anything other than that is probably not the right thing to be thinking about.”
