Dr. Ben Carson, accomplished neurosurgeon and new conservative darling, said in a recent interview that he repeatedly declined the White House's requests to preview his well-known National Prayer Breakfast Speech before it was delivered on Feb. 7.
"I told them that I don't have an advance copy because I don't write out my speeches and I don't use teleprompters," Carson told The Hill in an interview earlier this week.
"… they asked more than once … I gave them the [Biblical] texts around which the remarks would be framed … I said 'read those texts, the remarks will be framed around those;' … that should have told them something," Carson added.
Carson's National Prayer Breakfast Speech, which lasted nearly 30 minutes and focused on an unnecessary need for political correctness in the country, has made him an instant conservative hero, as he managed to articulate many concerns of the GOP party while standing directly next to President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
In his speech, Carson, a Seventh Day Adventist Christian, also focused on taxation, health care, the national debt, and education in the U.S., providing a diagnosis of what he feels is wrong with America.
Following Carson's speech, media outlets proclaimed the well-known neurosurgeon, who is the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md., as the "New Conservative Folk Hero," while others called for him to run for president.
"[Carson's speech] is the kind of thing the Republican Party should have been saying for the past four years," conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh said regarding the speech.
Liberals were less than enthused with Carson's speech, arguing that he should have restrained himself from speaking about politics at a prayer breakfast.
Carson, however, said in a recent interview with Chris Wallace of "Fox News Sunday" that he had no qualms about critically discussing Obama's policies while standing mere feet from the president, saying that his comments were meant only to "please God."
"I serve God, and my purpose is to please Him, and if God be for you, who can be against you?" Carson told Wallace.
Although Carson has said that he has no plans to run for president in the 2016 election, he has not completely disappeared from the political spotlight.
Next month, Carson will be a featured speaker at the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference, the largest gathering of conservative leaders and activists in the country.
"Dr. Ben Carson represents the optimism and hope of the future of the conservative movement, while at the same time he articulates the deep fiscal and social challenges that our Nation faces," Al Cardenas, chairman of the American Conservative Union, which is hosting the conference, said in a statement, as reported by The Christian Post.
Carson, who has announced his plans to retire from neurosurgery in June, is also considered to be a philanthropist.
The doctor and his wife have founded Carson Scholars Fund, which provides scholarships to children throughout the country excelling in academics and humanitarianism.
870
