Carson On Refugee Crisis: We Can’t Put US At Risk ‘To Be Politically Correct’

Republican presidential candidate, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, speaks at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, Saturday, July 18, 2015. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Republican presidential candidate and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson said Sunday that the United States should be “extra cautious” when considering allowing refugees to the country.

President Obama reportedly told advisers last week that he would like to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees to the US in the approaching budget year.

ABC “This Week” host Martha Raddatz asked Carson Sunday how he would handle the refugee crisis.

“I would recognize that bringing in people from the Middle East right now carries extra danger. And we have to be extra cautious. You know, the — the typical mechanisms that we use for screening people, perhaps, have to be enhanced. And I say — that’s why I say we have to have an excellent process,” Carson said.

Carson, continued, and questioned the effectiveness of the process, mentioning the Tsarnaev brothers, who were behind the bombing at the Boston Marathon in 2013.

“I know we have a process, but how effective is it?” Carson said. “How does it, you know, let people like the Tsarnaev brothers in here?”

“You know, we need to tighten it up and be very careful, because we cannot put our people at risk because we’re trying to be politically correct,” Carson said on the program.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for anniew anniew says:

    Why isn’t doing something for good reasons, because we care, because we have compassion…or for practical reasons, because the world is watching, not something that appeals to such a self professed God fearing man?

  2. In this case, Carson’s compassion flew out the window the day he decided to sell his soul to run for office as a Republican.

  3. Yes, one should never do anything decent and kind for anyone, for fear of being ‘politically correct’.

    Not to mention that the Middle East is fucked up in large part because of US warmongering in the neighborhood. Mostly initiated by Republicans, who never want to fix any problem that they themselves have created.

  4. What he’s offering are not solutions, just criticisms of what’s in place, and that’s easy to do. Trump has mastered it. Carson probably didn’t think much about foreign affairs until he announced he’d run and now he’s winging it. Mention the Tsarnaev brothers and you get their attention.

  5. OK… I’ll bite… did you refuse to treat Middle Eastern children out of fear you might be treating a future terrorist?

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

73 more replies

Participants

Avatar for anniew Avatar for jw1 Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for brooklyndweller Avatar for mattinpa Avatar for bikerdad Avatar for leftflank Avatar for inlabsitrust Avatar for carlosfiance Avatar for daveyjones64 Avatar for ralph_vonholst Avatar for lastroth Avatar for midnight_rambler Avatar for ottnott Avatar for leeks Avatar for sufi66 Avatar for jcblues Avatar for breccia Avatar for darrtown Avatar for cincypix Avatar for occamsrazor2 Avatar for emilianoelmexicano Avatar for thecaptain Avatar for puppies

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: