Dr. Ben Carson, the famed neurosurgeon turned rising conservative political star, tells
Newsmax TV he's leaning heavily toward running for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.
In fact, you can bet on it, Carson revealed Friday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
"The things that I look for are how strong the financial support is. It seems to be very strong. It's looking quite positive," said Carson, who added that his exploratory committee has raised over $2 million in 28 days.
Host Steve Malzberg then asked, "If I were a betting man, you would tell me to go to Vegas and put more down that you will run than down that you wouldn't run?"
"Yeah, that would be a reasonable thing," Carson replied. "I would hope you would not lose your money.
"I'm certainly going to work toward providing the American people with a choice that they will be enthusiastic about," he said.
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Carson — author of
"One Nation: What We Can All Do to Save America's Future," written with Candy Carson and published by Sentinel — said he'll make an announcement about his political future the first week in May.
He was one of several Republican heavyweights to address the National Rifle Association's annual convention in Nashville on Friday. He extolled the importance of Americans' right to bear arms.
"If we lose sight of the reason for the Second Amendment and we begin to relax … we cannot relax even one bit. We can't give any ground on that issue," Carson told Malzberg.
"All we have to do is look historically at other nations where tyrants have come in and decimated the population and what they always do first is they always get [the weapons]."
Carson is considered a great American success story, rising from a single-parent upbringing in Detroit to become one of the world's foremost physicians and scientists.
He was the director of pediatric neurosurgery at the Children's Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital for 29 years. In 2008, President George W. Bush awarded him the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
If Carson throws his hat in the ring, he will join a quickly growing field of GOP stars who have already declared or are mulling joining the race.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky have announced their candidacies, and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is expected to do so next week.
Others who may be close to declaring include Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
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