Ben Carson’s presidential campaign said it chose to cut off a Sunday interview on CNN because CNN was “abusing our courtesy.”
The interview with CNN was taped on Friday for about 20 minutes, though it was edited down to only eight. Five of those minutes were a back and forth between Carson and anchor Jake Tapper, who grilled the retired neurosurgeon for controversial comments he made last week about Muslims.
“You’re assuming that Muslim Americans put their religion ahead of the country,” Tapper said, referring to Carson, who has repeatedly said that he would not “advocate” for a Muslim president.
Carson, who is fourth in the Washington Examiner‘s presidential power rankings, replied, “I’m assuming that if you accept all the tenets of Islam, that you would have a very difficult time abiding under the Constitution of the United States.”
As Tapper readied to continue, a man off camera can be heard saying, “This interview is over.” Tapper and Carson then shook hands and the interview ended.
“The interview was cut abruptly by a staffer because CNN way overshot their time allotment and were frankly abusing our courtesy,” said Doug Watts, Carson’s communications director.
A source at CNN told the Washington Examiner media desk that it was unclear at the time why the interview ended so abruptly. The source did say, however, that the agreed upon time limit for the interview was 15 minutes but that it lasted for nearly 20.
Carson, who has never held public office, is currently in the top two of most national polls.
