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Quote of the Day

September 22, 2015 at 7:55 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 30 Comments

“Know this, I meant exactly what I said. I could never support a candidate for President of the United States that was Muslim and had not renounced the central tenant of Islam: Sharia Law.”

— Ben Carson, writing on Facebook.

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign, Religion Tagged With: Ben Carson

Cruz Says Muslims Can’t Be Excluded from Presidency

September 21, 2015 at 8:54 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 56 Comments

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told the Des Moines Register that it would be unconstitutional to disqualify a Muslim from the presidency because of religion as GOP rival Ben Carson suggests.

Said Cruz: “You know, the Constitution specifies there shall be no religious test for public office and I am a constitutionalist.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign Tagged With: Ben Carson, Ted Cruz

Carson Doubles Down on Muslim Comments

September 20, 2015 at 7:57 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 75 Comments

Ben Carson is standing by his view that a Muslim should not be president of the United States, telling The Hill in an interview that whoever takes the White House should be “sworn in on a stack Bibles, not a Koran.”

Said Carson: “I do not believe Sharia is consistent with the Constitution of this country. Muslims feel that their religion is very much a part of your public life and what you do as a public official, and that’s inconsistent with our principles and our Constitution.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign Tagged With: Ben Carson


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Carson Says Muslim Should Not Be President

September 20, 2015 at 9:13 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 104 Comments

Ben Carson told NBC News he would not support a Muslim as President of the United States.

Said Carson: “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that.”

He also said that Islam, as a religion, is incompatible with the Constitution.

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign Tagged With: Ben Carson

Ben Carson Expands His Donor Support

September 14, 2015 at 7:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 6 Comments

New York Times: “First came the grass-roots support. Now Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who has quietly arrived near the front of the Republican presidential field, is scooping up $100,000 a night from wealthy donors in Texas and California — evidence that he is fast transforming from a novelty candidate into one to be taken seriously by rivals and party leaders alike.”

A group of super PACs supporting Carson “already say they have raised nearly $20 million.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign Tagged With: Ben Carson

Carson Sidesteps Confrontation with Trump

September 13, 2015 at 9:00 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 9 Comments

“Ben Carson’s approach to handling Donald Trump’s insults is different from every other 2016 Republican presidential candidate’s: He apologizes for provoking them,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Said Carson: “I said something that sounded like I was questioning his faith. I really wasn’t. I was really talking more about mine. But it was said in an inappropriate way, which I recognized, and I apologized for that. It’s never my intention to impugn other people.”

“The retired neurosurgeon’s deferential display comes after Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Lindsey Graham found themselves diminished after tussling with Mr. Trump. For Mr. Carson, steering clear of confrontation with his chief competitor for antiestablishment support is part of his effort to become the anti-Trump.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign Tagged With: Ben Carson

Trump Quote of the Day

September 10, 2015 at 1:00 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 70 Comments

“If you look at his past, which I’ve done, he wasn’t a big man of faith. All of a sudden he’s becoming this man of faith. And he was heavy into the world of abortion.”

— Donald Trump, quoted by CNN, after Ben Carson questioned his faith in God.

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign Tagged With: Ben Carson, Donald Trump

Quote of the Day

September 10, 2015 at 10:26 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 18 Comments

“The media frequently wants to goad people into wars, into gladiator fights, you know. And I’m certainly not going to get into that.”

— Ben Carson, quoted by the Washington Post, after Donald Trump challenged his faith and called him an “okay doctor.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign Tagged With: Ben Carson, Donald Trump

Carson Says He’ll Continue to Defy Expectations

September 9, 2015 at 10:27 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 28 Comments

Ben Carson told The Hill that he’s “embracing the role of underdog and dismissing those who say he doesn’t have staying power to be the Republican presidential nominee.”

Said Carson: “Everything they’ve predicted from the very beginning has turned out to be false, and that will continue to be the case. They have no concept whatsoever about me or my campaign. They want to fit us in a neat little box, and we just won’t fit there.”

“With almost no institutional support among Republicans or billionaires giving to his supporting super-PACs, Carson’s campaign is being kept afloat almost exclusively by small-dollar donations that have been pouring in since the first Republican debate on Aug 6.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign Tagged With: Ben Carson

Trump Warns Carson Not to Attack

September 4, 2015 at 8:47 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 34 Comments

Donald Trump “isn’t going on the attack against Ben Carson — not yet, at least,” Politico reports.

Said Trump: “Well, I’m much better as a counterpuncher, so I’d rather have, and I’m hoping for Ben to really hit me at some point, because I love to counterpunch.”

He added: “But I think I’m probably going to wait. I do have certain things to say, but I’m not going to be saying them for a little while. Let’s see what happens.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign Tagged With: Ben Carson, Donald Trump

Is Ben Carson’s Moment Next?

August 31, 2015 at 9:20 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 62 Comments

Rick Klein: “The retired neurosurgeon has none of Donald Trump’s showmanship, and he isn’t even a middle-of-the-night attack-Tweeter. But he is in a strong second place in Iowa, just five points behind Trump in the new Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll, eclipsing the support of Ted Cruz and Scott Walker combined. A whopping 79 percent of likely GOP caucus-goers view Carson favorably, with only 8 percent (!) viewing him unfavorably.”

“That suggests tremendous upside for a man who is every bit the outsider Trump is, only with, arguably, a more compelling personal story and, inarguably, a less abrasive personal style. The anti-establishment fervor that’s driving Trump has more than enough left over for Carson, evidently. And he’s running stronger than Trump among women and evangelicals in the new poll, too.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign Tagged With: Ben Carson

Quote of the Day

August 28, 2015 at 10:47 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 85 Comments

“There is no war on women – there may be a war on what’s inside of women, but there is no war on women in this country.”

— Ben Carson, quoted by The Hill.

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign Tagged With: Ben Carson

Carson Open to Using Drones to Secure Border

August 19, 2015 at 9:31 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 65 Comments

Ben Carson is open to using military drone strikes on American soil to secure the border, CNN reports.

Said Carson: “You look at some of these caves and things out there one drone strike, boom, and they’re gone. I’m suggesting we do what we need to do to secure the border — whatever that is.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign, Immigration Tagged With: Ben Carson

Carson Says Planned Parenthood Wants to Control Blacks

August 13, 2015 at 9:32 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 153 Comments

Ben Carson said that Planned Parenthood puts clinics in black neighborhoods to “control that population,” The Hill reports.

Said Carson: “I think people should go back and read about Margaret Sanger who founded this place – a woman who by the way, Hillary Clinton says she admires. Look up and see what many people in Nazi Germany thought about her – a great person.”

Filed Under: Race Tagged With: Ben Carson

Ben Carson Builds Grassroots Support

June 29, 2015 at 9:39 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 6 Comments

Reuters: “In polls, Carson outperforms most of his fellow candidates, who often have much bigger media profiles, much more political experience and in many cases have track records as governors or senators. While the spotlight has been on opponents like former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Carson has been quietly building a grassroots following. His surprising popularity in the polls has translated into a high number of individual donations that has not been previously reported. Interviews with supporters and conservative activists suggest he is benefiting from a weariness among some Republicans with establishment politicians.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign Tagged With: Ben Carson

Quote of the Day

June 18, 2015 at 12:09 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 59 Comments

“The reason I think we need to seal our borders completely, all of our borders—north, south, east, west—is not so much because I’m afraid of somebody in Honduras … I’m afraid of someone from Syria that wants to bomb us and wants to do bad things.”

— Ben Carson (R), quoted by National Journal.

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign, Immigration Tagged With: Ben Carson

Just One GOP Candidate Showed for Latino Convention

June 17, 2015 at 8:06 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 38 Comments

More than 1,200 Hispanic leaders have gathered in Las Vegas “for, among other things, a presidential candidates forum. Yet out of the GOP’s 16 declared or likely presidential candidates, only one — retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson — bothered to show up,” the Washington Post reports.

“Many campaigns cited ‘scheduling conflicts’ for skipping the 32nd annual convention of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. Instead, at least 13 GOP candidates plan to be in Washington this week to address the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s ‘Road to the Majority’ conference, the latest in a busy series of presidential cattle-call events for social conservatives.”

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign Tagged With: Ben Carson

Quote of the Day

June 12, 2015 at 7:20 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 66 Comments

“What position can a person take who has no animosity toward gay people, but believes in the traditional definition of marriage that would be acceptable?”

— Ben Carson, in an interview on CNN.

Filed Under: 2016 Campaign Tagged With: Ben Carson

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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