Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson’s remarks on same-sex lifestyles are sparking more interest in the press than his announcement earlier this week that he has filed paperwork to run for the president of the United States.
In an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo that aired Wednesday, Carson dismissed comparisons between restrictions on gay marriage and slavery.
“People have no control over their race,” Carson said, adding that in his view people do have somecontrol over their sexual orientation.
“Because a lot of people who go into prison go into prison straight — and when they come out, they’re gay,” the former head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital said. “So, did something happen while they were in there? Ask yourself that question.”
Carson’s comments were soon widely reported, in contrast to his Tuesday announcement that he had become the first widely known 2016 White House hopeful to file paperwork with the Federal Election Commission.
A Lexis search for “Ben Carson” shows newspapers, blogs, wire services and web publications ran 62 news articles all day Tuesday, most of those detailing the former neurosurgeon’s announcement. By comparison,the 2008 Presidential Medal of Freedom winnerhad already garnered 38 articles before Wednesday morning ended, the majority focused on his same-sex remarks.
Wednesday also saw a noticeable uptick in Carson-related television coverage, nearly all of it focused on his gay prison comments.
Carson’s theories on sexual orientation did give him a leg up on another famous but unlikely presidential hopeful — Donald Trump, whose frequent flirtations with the White House garner eager media coverage.
The real estate mogul enjoyed a burst of coverage last week following his claim that he’s the only candidate who can beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, his speech at the annualConservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md., and a statement to the Washington Examiner that he might abandon his catchphrase-generating NBC series “The Apprentice” in order to clear his path to the Oval Office.
Interestingly enough, Carson’s remarks on same-sex marriage, though they’ve increased his visibility, have not diverted attention from the scandal over probable 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email account to conduct official government business during her tenure as secretary of State.
Beltway pundits treated Carson’s candid comments with a mix of umbrage and hipster irony.
“This was the day that Ben Carson moved from ‘guy who will never be president’ to ‘guy who will never be president,'” Bloomberg News’ Dave Weigel joked.
Liberal columnist Ana Marie Cox tweeted, “Carson’s comments suggest we retire ‘brain surgery’ as shorthand for something only smart people can do.”
“Only the willfully blind and ignorant refuse to see that the quest for equality, dignity and equal protection as guaranteed by the Constitution is a shared struggle for civil rights by African Americans and their fellow LGBT Americans,” wroteWashington Post opinion columnist Jonathan Capehart.
