Ben Carson “doubled down on his stance that he will leave the GOP if party elite are planning to mount a floor fight at the nominating convention,” The Hill reports.

Said Carson: “Well, one of the reasons that I got into this is because I heard the frustration in the people who are so tired of back-room deals, of subterfuge, of dishonesty. And, you know, if that is the case, then you know I’m out of here.”

Ben Carson “thinks everyone visiting the United States should register and be monitored while in the country,” Reuters reports.

Said a spokesman: “Everyone visiting our country should register and be monitored during their stay as is done in many countries. We do not and would not advocate being selective on one’s religion.”

“After struggling for weeks to articulate his views on foreign policy, presidential candidate Ben Carson didn’t take any chances when addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“The retired neurosurgeon read his 30-minute speech from notes, looking down at his lectern and not at the audience. He repeatedly botched the pronunciation of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, making it sound instead like the chickpea dish hummus — all while impugning President Obama’s understanding of the Middle East… He kept speaking through the few moments of applause and spoke – as many reporters present noted on Twitter – as if he were a nervous adolescent delivering a middle-school book report.”

Rick Klein: “If there’s a Paris effect in the GOP race, it looks like Ben Carson is the one feeling it – and not Donald Trump. The new Quinnipiac poll out Wednesday morning shows Carson down 7 points over the past month, with Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz now in a virtual tie with him for second place. His numbers have suffered across the board, but this may be the most telling: Republicans saw him as having the right experience to be president, 64-30, a month ago; now that’s 42-46 – turned around and underwater.”

“It’s no collapse, but it’s a major warning sign for a candidate with weak credentials on foreign policy and national security, notwithstanding a trip to a Syrian refugee camp right after Thanksgiving. This is another factor that makes the Ted Cruz-Marco Rubio rivalry fascinating and important. If Carson supporters are up for grabs, it’s those two senators who seem, for now, best positioned to take advantage.”

“Ben Carson, whose widespread support among evangelical voters has shown some signs of slipping, will hold a news conference in South Carolina on Wednesday that his campaign has called an ‘Evangelical Rollout,'” the New York Times reports.

“Ben Carson, who is facing increasing scrutiny over his grasp of foreign policy, is traveling to Jordan on Friday to visit Syrian refugees, in order to gain an understanding of the pressing issue and to polish his candidacy,” the New York Times reports.

Said Carson: “I find when you have firsthand knowledge of things as opposed to secondhand, it makes a much stronger impression.”

Wonk Wire: Explaining the Syrian refugee vetting process

“Ben Carson continued to walk back his assertion on Monday night that, like Donald Trump, he also saw video footage of Muslims in New Jersey celebrating the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11, blaming the media in the process for having ‘an agenda,'” Politico reports.

Said Carson: “They asked me: Did I see the film? I did see the film. I don’t know where they were, but I did see a film of Muslims celebrating. And I was making the point that it was inappropriate.”

“If there’s a rabid dog running around your neighborhood you’re probably not gonna assume something good about that dog, and you’re probably gonna put your children out of the way… At the same time, I love dogs, and I’m gonna call the humane society. Hopefully they can come and take this dog away and create a safe environment once again.”

— Ben Carson, quoted by CBS News, on the Syrian refugees.

Ben Carson’s presidential campaign “took to social media to share a map of the United States in which five New England states were placed in the wrong location. The campaign deleted the Twitter and Facebook posts Wednesday morning after media outlets and social media users pointed out the error,” the Washington Post reports.

“Ben Carson’s remarks on foreign policy have repeatedly raised questions about his grasp of the subject, but never more seriously than in the past week, when he wrongly asserted that China had intervened militarily in Syria and then failed, on national television, to name the countries he would call on to form a coalition to fight the Islamic State,” the New York Times reports.

“Faced with increasing scrutiny about whether Mr. Carson — who leads in some Republican presidential polls — was capable of leading American foreign policy, two of his top advisers said… that he had struggled to master the intricacies of the Middle East and national security and that intense tutoring was having little effect.”

Said one: “Nobody has been able to sit down with him and have him get one iota of intelligent information about the Middle East.”

Jonathan Chait: “The candidate’s advisers are saying on the record he doesn’t know anything, has trouble learning anything, and cannot seem to recall even what little information he has managed to assimilate. I don’t see how a Carson presidency could go wrong.”

Saturday Night Live had fun with Ben Carson’s life story.