Ben Carson blames media for 'rabid dog' Syrian refugee metaphor at Mobile rally
By Casey Toner | ctoner@al.com AL.com
Mobile, AL
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GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson said on Thursday that he dreamed that the American people will stem the tide of political correctness that threatens the country's values. Carson made the remarks in the late afternoon at a rally the University of South Alabama, where he stuck to his standard talking points during a 30-minute speech. It was his third event in Mobile, after visiting Prichard Preparatory School and St. Paul's Episcopal School earlier in the morning.
He referenced a controversial metaphor he used earlier in the afternoon when he denounced the plan to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in the United States.
Calling for a strengthened screening process, Carson compared terrorists posing as Syrian refugees in order to enter the U.S. to a rabid dog walking around the neighborhood that parents want to keep their children safe from. "What did the news media do?" Carson said. "'Carson said 'the Syrians are like rabid dogs!' This is the type of thing that they do. Fortunately, it only works on gullible people. But the problem is there are a lot of gullible people."
Starting out his speech, Carson breezed through his biography, sharing stories about his troubled youth and about his success as a doctor.
"Throughout my medical career, it was just such a tremendous honor to be able to intervene in the lives of people, many times families being absolutely devastated," Carson told the Mitchell Center crowd of more than 1,000 people. "By the grace of God, being able to give that person life again."
Giving full credit to his mother, Sonya, he said he was raised to take responsibility. This can-do attitude helped him rise to the top of his class after previously faltering.
"She never expected excuses from us," Carson said. "That was the most valuable thing she did for us. You stop making excuses and you start looking for solutions."
Carson said he decided to run for president after seeing hundreds of thousands of petition signatures urging him on.
"I was shocked as I listened to the elderly people and so many of them were saying the same thing: they had given up on America and they were just waiting to die," Carson said. "I heard that from every place. And then younger people who were so concerned with their children and grandchildren and what was happening to the nation and how it was changing so rapidly."
Carson took a few shots at the media, the "PC police," and the progressive political movement.
"The secular progressive movement in this country does not like Judeo-Christian values," Carson said. "It does not like the people who have them."
Near the end of his speech, said it was his dream that "the people of our nation will awaken."
"They will understand what is at stake," Carson said. "The very values that led this nation to the pinnacle of the world in record time are at stake. There are those that want to give away all that for political correctness. We do not want to give away who we are."