WATCH: Here's how Ben Carson's super PAC reacted to his butchering the pronunciation of Hamas

While Stephen Colbert joked about Carson calling the Palestinian group "hummus," there was a real crisis going on

By Matthew Rozsa

Staff Writer

Published May 2, 2017 6:33PM (EDT)

 (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

The upcoming documentary "PACmen" gives us a look at what the super PAC forces behind Dr. Ben Carson's failed 2016 presidential campaign were thinking and feeling as the surgeon made his hapless bid for the presidency.

As a new clip from the documentary reveals, they were often just as incredulous as the rest of the country.

"It's a disaster. I don't know how else to describe it," one unseen campaign aide says on a phone call. "He read the word as, not hummus, but pretty close to hummus."

It's interesting that viewers have a chance of hearing the super PAC people backing Carson spin the campaign among themselves before they attempted to unleash the same rhetoric on the rest of the country. "The campaign is just trying to make him into the typical candidate," says the voice on the phone, as if Carson's inability to articulate the name of a militant Islamic political organization so it doesn't sound like mashed chickpeas is quirky instead of disqualifying.

"This observational documentary follows the men behind the Super-PACs that drafted Dr. Carson to run," according to the synopsis provided to Salon in a press statement. "Believing Carson can save the Republican Party, they successfully persuade him to run, raise millions of dollars and catapult him to the top of the polls." The release continued, "However, Carson’s political inexperience soon begins to show, and his constant media gaffes make it increasingly difficult to raise funds. As Carson’s poll numbers nosedive they watch in horror as Trump inexplicably hijacks their anti-establishment movement."

The press release added, "As the campaign descends into chaos the PACmen increasingly begin to wonder . . . did they pick the wrong savior?"

[jwplayer file="http://media.salon.com/2017/05/f14949dd5499e28d3c6a661b72d41cca.mp4" image="http://media.salon.com/2017/05/e293d211300eab4dd2624bd6e6bbeaef-1280x720.png"][/jwplayer]


By Matthew Rozsa

Matthew Rozsa is a staff writer at Salon. He received a Master's Degree in History from Rutgers-Newark in 2012 and was awarded a science journalism fellowship from the Metcalf Institute in 2022.

MORE FROM Matthew Rozsa


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Ben Carson Donald Trump Hamas Hummus Pacmen Stephen Colbert