Ben Carson: Stop Rush to Judgment on Zimmerman Verdict

Calling the reaction to the George Zimmerman verdict a "frenzy" and "polarization," Dr. Ben Carson urged people to pause and look at all the facts in the case before rushing to judgment.

"I think it would do us all well to step back and do something that I always suggest before rushing to judgment: Put yourself in the place of the individuals involved," the former director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital said Wednesday on "Fox & Friends."

"We need to be saying, 'What can we learn from this?' rather than allowing ourselves to be whipped into a frenzy with no evidence from what I can see, that this was preplanned or that there was malicious intent," said Carson, who became well-known politically after challenging President Barack Obama's economic policies at a prayer breakfast earlier this year.

Carson added, "None of us knows what we would do if somebody is getting the best of us in a fight and we have a gun. There are a lot of implications here that need to be talked about."

Saying the term "racist" was thrown around too easily, Carson suggested taking a step back, saying, "We really should look at all the facts before we start impugning people with that name."

Carson, who is black, also addressed use of the term white Hispanic — which some media outlets are calling Zimmerman — saying it was "hilarious," and said, "Why don't we call Obama a white African-American? This is craziness. Why do we get so involved in superficial words when we should be looking much deeper at people and at situations?"