With Ben Carson’s presidential campaign in its twilight, it’s time to reflect on all that his White House bid contributed to the 2016 race.
While hardly a foreign policy visionary, Carson managed to make the Egyptian pyramids a campaign issue. He also consistently brought a calming, low-key energy to the Republican presidential debates and told stories about maybe, sort of being recruited to West Point.
The candidate, who skipped Thursday night’s GOP debate and is widely expected to formally suspend his campaign Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, ran one of the most bizarre campaigns for national office in recent memory. So here’s a look back on just a few of Carson’s most memorable moments of the 2016 race.
Weird and wacky debate performances
Debates were not Carson’s strong suit. They gave him a venue to make cracks about sleeping on stage and beg other candidates to attack him so he could get more speaking time.
Questions about foreign policy in particular were Carson’s kryptonite.
Asked about theoretical Russian aggression during a January debate, Carson offered the muddled analogy, “Putin is a one-horse country, oil and energy.”
In another contest, Carson joked about snoozing through the debate and suggested that America’s enemies are plotting to attack “our electrical grid,” a threat numerous astute viewers pointed out sounded suspiciously like the plot of the alien invasion movie “Independence Day.”
Carson also caused a massive traffic jam while the candidates were filing on stage for an ABC News debate. The Republican stopped dead in his tracks in the off-stage entryway, even as rivals Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Donald Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) all tried to prod him onstage as they veered around him.
Carson later blamed the incident on the sound system, but it felt like a perfectly encapsulating commentary on the GOP race at large.
The same month, Carson went full fortune cookie when he mused that he would consider “the fruit salad of their life” when considering a Supreme Court nominee.
The great pyramids conspiracy
BuzzFeed’s unearthing of old footage of Carson saying the Egyptian pyramids were actually built by biblical figures to store grain provided the perfect opportunity for Carson to confirm that he does in fact still believe the thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory.
In a race as thoroughly unpredictable as 2016, bringing a bottom-shelf conspiracy theory into the mainstream was a distinguished achievement.
His murky personal history
During the stretch of the race where Carson was giving frontrunner Trump a real run for his money, reporters turned up a number of factual inconsistencies in Carson’s biography.
A key stepping stone in Carson’s redemption narrative, in which he transformed from angry, troubled teen who nearly stabbed a friend at age 14 to a God-fearing doctor, was the offer of a full West Point military academy scholarship.
But as it turned out, Carson never applied for admission to West Point and there was no proof to back up the claim Carson made in “Gifted Hands” that he met the famed Gen. William Westmoreland while the school courted him.
After CNN was unable to verify Carson’s claims about his violent youth, the campaign also conceded that some details from his biography were “fictitious.”
Another “hazy” incident involved Carson’s account of being held at gunpoint at a Popeye’s restaurant in Baltimore. The way Carson told it, he helped diffuse the situation by telling the gunman his business was with the guy behind the counter, rather than him.
The Baltimore police weren’t able to confirm the incident, but Carson swore that “as a God-fearing Christian, it’s something that happened.”
‘Fresh clothes’ fixation
The Iowa caucuses were rough for the Carson camp.
Fighting rumors spread by the Cruz camp at caucus sites that he was dropping out of the race before the polls even closed, Carson’s campaign had to clarify he was not traveling directly to New Hampshire from Iowa because he needed a pit stop for “fresh clothes.”
Flying home to Florida seemed absurdly far to go for a wardrobe change, and the bit quickly became a 2016 punch line. But Carson later explained that he “grew up to preserve what I have,” rather than constantly running out and buying new suits.
I’d rather be water boarded than ''remember" any of Carson’s list of absurdities. Only Sarah Palin rivals Carson in dumbness from a national candidate in modern times.
He has made a fool of himself. Physician, heal thyself.
One Wittle Wee-Wee … that’s all it takes, Dr. Carson, right? This election year’s GOP debates are the weirdest, by far, than in any in my lifetime. Since we can’t respond directly to Josh’s great editorials, I’ll say little something here.
Sarah Palin started legitimizing this behavior eight years ago. Now, Donald Trump–himself, a larger-than-life cartoon character–has fully unleashed the dogs. Some years back, there was a hit song entitled “Who Let the Dogs Out?” Well, it seems the answer to that question was standing on that debate stage last night – The Tang-Orange Real Estate Titan, better known as “The Donald,” that’s who.
Dr Ben Carson will be as well remembered for his 2016 Presidential candidacy as Herman Cain was for his in 2012…
any speculation on which Republican gets to fill this spot in 2020?
the “Grain Silos” will live forever in American political culture, like the Demon Sheep or John McCain’s Black Baby.
Mia Love? Thomas Sowell? J.C.Watts?