Ben Carson said in a new interview that his seven month-long presidential run has been a “pretty brutal process” so far.
“It’s been a pretty amazing year, no question about it. Highs and lows. Obviously, going through a process like this is pretty brutal. Everybody told me that it would be, so that doesn’t particularly surprise me,” Carson told the Washington Post in an interview published Monday.
When asked what was brutal about the campaign, Carson responded: “Well, the fact that people try to find a scandal. Of course there are no scandals, which is pretty frustrating for them, I’m sure.”
Some of those scandals were self-inflicted, including when he claimed he received a scholarship to West Point, and stories about his violent nature as a youth. Carson also expressed regret that he once suggested the Chinese had a military presence in Syria, noting that “everybody knows that Chinese have physical characteristics that would make them pretty easy to identify in a setting like that.”
“As far as the China thing was concerned, I probably shouldn’t have said that. I said that on the basis of what some people in the CIA tell me,” he told the Post. “And of course, subsequent information came out that there is some Chinese [involvement in Syria]. But they made it seem like I’m saying there are a bunch of Chinese boots on the ground. Well, everybody knows that Chinese have physical characteristics that would make them pretty easy to identify in a setting like that. Give me a break. But they just jump on.”
Carson then acknowledged his shortcomings foreign policy. When Carson asked whether he wished he had addressed those issues sooner, he replied: “You know, it is what it is.”
Read the full interview here.
