GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson said Wednesday that he wishes he could say the furor over his talk show comment about not supporting a Muslim in the the White House surprises him, but he's willing to fight back against the nation's "PC culture."
"Somebody has to stand up for who we are," the retired neurosurgeon told
Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program. "America is a very unique place, and you'll notice that there's an American way. But there's no French way, there's no Canadian way, no Portuguese way, and we need to be proud of who we are. We ascended to the pinnacle and the highest pinnacle anyone has ever reached in record time because of the values and principles that we have."
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And while the controversy hasn't died down after Carson told NBC's "Meet the Press host Chuck Todd that he
could not support a Muslim for president, his supporters are responding by opening their wallets for his campaign.
"The money's been coming in so fast, it's hard to even keep up with it," Carson said on Wednesday. "I remember the day of the last debate, within 24 hours we'd raised $1 million. And it's coming in at least at that rate, if not quite a bit faster."
Rivals such as Sens. Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, along with Carly Fiorina, have come out strong against his statement, pointing out that the Constitution does not forbid a candidate for the presidency based on religion, and Carson said that he never said anyone could not run for office.
"I just said I wouldn't support them," he told the Fox News program. "Do I not have a right to support what I want to support? I want to support what made this nation great and what made us unique."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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