Ben Carson comes unhinged: Says Obama fosters "race wars" in effort to "destroy society"

Latest comments are par for the course from the ultraconservative 2016 candidate

By Sophia Tesfaye

Senior Politics Editor

Published July 6, 2015 8:32PM (EDT)

  (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
(Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

President Obama just uses the presidential bully pulpit to "create wars" like "class warfare," the "war on women," "race wars" and even "religious wars" and so-called "age wars" to destroy society, according to retired neurosurgeon and Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson.

In an interview with Iowa conservative blog Caffeinated Thought -- captured by Right Wing Watch -- Carson said he would use the bully pulpit to unite the country rather than divide it as President Obama had done by injecting himself into local matters like the Confederate flag debate in South Carolina, arguing that "these are exactly the kind of things you want to do when you want to destroy a society":

I think I would use the bully pulpit to help people realize what we have in common rather than what separates us. What it’s been used for for the last several years is to create wars: a war on women, race wars, any kind of anything involving people of two different races, income wars, always class warfare, religious wars now, age wars. You know, these are exactly the kinds of things you want to do when you want to destroy a society, not when you want to bring people together.

Carson, the only declared African-American presidential candidate in 2016, polls third nationally among all Republican candidates. He previously called Obamacare the worst thing "since slavery."


By Sophia Tesfaye

Sophia Tesfaye is Salon's senior editor for news and politics, and resides in Washington, D.C. You can find her on Twitter at @SophiaTesfaye.

MORE FROM Sophia Tesfaye


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