This is another one of those campaign stories that make us do a double take to make sure we're not getting our news from a parody site. Ben Carson told ABC's This Week that he'd be willing to give Kanye West "a chance" at becoming president of the United States. And yes, this is the same Ben Carson, former surgeon, running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.
"Well, I am certainly willing to give him a chance," Carson said. "He'll be able to explain things and see if he resonates with the people."
The question arose in part because in an interview with Vanity Fair this week, West continued to speak seriously about a 2020 run for office. He dropped quite a compliment for Carson: "As soon as I heard [Ben] Carson speak, I tried for three weeks to get on the phone with him. I was like this is the most brilliant guy."
Carson confirmed that West's call finally went through.
"I did have an opportunity to talk with him," Carson told ABC. "I was extremely impressed with his business acumen. He knows a lot about business. I talked to him about the possibility of maybe himself and some of the other people in pop culture doing some music that might be uplifting, that might give young women a sense of their value and young men a sense of responsibility. I think it could be a tremendous thing in our society."
Carson's interview comes a week after his controversial statements on Meet the Press that he "would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation." On This Week, he expanded on that to say that if a Muslim were to be president, he or she would have to swear to "subjugate their religious beliefs to our Constitution."
This kind of inflammatory talk isn't likely to stop soon, as it clearly benefitted Carson in the polls. The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows him in a virtual tie with Donald Trump for first place in the Republican primary, with Trump at 21% and Carson at 20. If this shoutout to 'Ye gives him an edge over Trump in the next round of polling, we really will have seen everything.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT