Ben Carson has largely kept quiet since he told a national audience that he didn’t think a Muslim had any business being president. His surrogates, though, are another matter. With Carson’s apparent blessing, they spent most of Sunday night and all of Monday doubling down on their boss’ claim that Islam is not consistent with the Constitution.
Carson campaign spokesman Doug Watts told NBC News on Sunday night that Carson is “a strict adherent to the First Amendment” and has “great respect” for Muslims. However, Watts then blew a dog whistle into a megaphone. He added that “there is a huge gulf between the faith and practice of the Muslim faith, and our Constitution and American values.”
Which is it, Doug? Your boss supports freedom of religion, but doesn’t think that Islam dovetails with American values? If there’s any difference at all between this statement and E.W. Jackson’s call for Muslims who want Carson to drop out of the race to “drop out of America,” I sure don’t see it.
On Monday, another of Carson’s surrogates, Armstrong Williams, expressed similar sentiments. CNN’s John Berman asked Williams, who is Carson’s longtime business manager, if his boss would tell a Muslim kid to forget about running for president. Watch here.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm8gqS8oKX0&w=853&h=480]
Williams replied that while Carson’s heart would go out to any Muslim kid who wants to become president someday, his “love for America” leads him to conclude that he could not support a Muslim presidential candidate. He added that many Americans would come to the same conclusion “if they search their hearts.” Williams went on to say that Carson’s love for this country is so strong that he believes “you have to protect America from those who would want to destroy it because of what they believe in.”
That didn’t sit well with CNN’s Kate Bolduan, who pointed out that Williams–again, presumably with Carson’s blessing–was making a “vast generalization” about all Muslims. Bolduan wondered if Williams would take kindly to anyone making such a generalization about Carson. Williams snapped, “That is their choice.” Berman wasn’t pleased with this either, asking Williams if he thought all 2.7 million American Muslims should effectively be disqualified from running for president. Williams wouldn’t budge, saying that Carson would not support a Muslim president “yesterday, today, or next week.”
So there you have it, folks. We’ve heard it from Carson himself, and now we’ve heard it from his surrogates. Carson has officially thrown in with an element of the religious right that wants to effectively require you to be a Christian to hold office in this country. For a long time, I thought that Carson was Ted Cruz was black skin. Well, I was wrong. After this, Carson is Donald Trump with black skin and a slightly better hairdo.
For much of yesterday and today, I wondered–why is Carson going so far off the deep end? Then I found out that Carson was pushed out of a Southern Baptist pastors’ conference in June. Several of the attendees expressed misgivings about Carson being one of the headliners since he’s a Seventh-Day Adventist.
I suspect that Carson is still a bit stung by this snub, and was trying to find some way to establish himself as THE social conservative in the race. After all, on paper he’s more electable than the other two social conservatives who made both primary debates, Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz. What better way to establish your Christianist bonafides than to declare that you believe a Muslim cannot honestly take the oath of office?
If Carson keeps this up, though, he may end up learning a hard lesson. Throwing this kind of red meat to the Christianist wing of the party may be enough to get him the nomination. But at most, it will win him 15 states in the general election. It will also torpedo what remains of his reputation as one of the greatest neurosurgeons this country has produced.
