NRO: Johns Hopkins neurosurgen Ben Carson spoke with Neil Cavuto yesterday afternoon about several issues he raised in his now-famous speech at the National Prayer Breakfast last week.
Carson responded directly to accusations that he used his remarks to “showboat” while the president was held as a captive audience, arguing that he was instead defying liberal attempts to muzzle dissent. “There are a group of people who would like to silence everybody and have everyone go along to get along,” he said, “but that’s not going to be very helpful for us in the long run in terms of solving our problems, and someone has to be courageous enough to actually stand up to the bullies.”
Carson also repeated his particular opposition to Obamacare, explaining that it further damaged the doctor-patient relationship: “Along comes a middleman to facilitate the relationship,” Carson told Cavuto, “and it has become this mammoth creature that completely controls everything and isn’t really necessary.”
Finally, he left the door open to a run for political office, something the Wall Street Journal and others have called for in the wake of his speech:
I’ve had people telling me that for years. If I had a nickel for everyone who’s told me that, I could finance my campaign. I’ve always said that if God grabs me by the collar and sticks me in the arena, that’s the only way I’ll do it. I’m actually going to retire in June from surgery. I will still teach; I will still be involved but I am going to retire from surgery so it does open up a lot of possibilities for me.
