During a discussion on the new tiff between Donald Trump and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and President George W. Bush, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson defended his own comments about the aftermath of 9/11.
During the September Republican presidential debate, Carson said that the moderate Arab states would have turned over Osama Bin Laden in two weeks if the U.S. had declared its intention to become energy independent.
On ABC’s “This Week,” host George Stephanopoulos asked Carson how his plan would have worked, noting that Bin Laden was an enemy of the moderate Arab states.
“Well, I think they would have been extremely concerned if we had declared — and we were serious about it — that we were going to become petroleum independent, because it would have had a major impact on their finances,” Carson responded. “And I think that probably would have trumped any loyalty that they had to people like Osama bin Laden.”
Stephanopoulos noted again that the moderate Arab states were not loyal to Bin Laden.
“Well, you may think that they did not have any loyalty to him, but I believe otherwise,” Carson replied.
Watch Carson’s comments on ABC beginning at the 3 minute mark:
