Ben Carson, the former
Carson also addressed the immigration issue and supposedly one-upped Donald Trump's idea of building a wall on the Mexican border.
According to Dennis Welch, who was covering the rally for KTVK-TV Phoenix, Carson seemed to suggest that he'd be OK with drone strikes on U.S. soil to protect the borders.
BREAKING: GOP Presidential candidate Ben Carson open to using military drone strikes on American soil to secure the border.
— Dennis Welch (@dennis_welch) August 19, 2015@dennis_welch breaking news, Dennis Welch is a lying tool. Ben Carson never said "drone strikes" he was referring to drone surveillance.
— Joe Schmo (@mrnotrollin_joe) August 19, 2015@abradacabla the story is false... He mentioned surveillance. Which is already being done.
Bout #drone strikes. Ben Carson.
— Kerwin Springer (@KerwinSpringer) August 19, 2015Ben Carson when asked about drone to secure the border: "I'm suggesting we do what we need to do to secure the border whatever that is."
— Dennis Welch (@dennis_welch) August 19, 2015The question seems to be Carson discussing drone surveillance on the border, which most agree he did talk about at the rally. But Welch seems to indicate Carson meant that he would protect the border with drones by any means necessary.
More from @RealBenCarson on border issues: "You look at some of these caves and things out there one drone strike, boom, and they'd gone."
— Dennis Welch (@dennis_welch) August 19, 2015It should be noted that Carson is no stranger to saying bombastic things, which is why his saying that he'd be all right with drone strikes on U.S. soil is plausible.
In the past, the West Palm Beach native has compared Obamacare to slavery, compared gay marriage to bestiality, and once said American society was not unlike Nazi Germany.
Carson has also called President Obama a "psychopath" and said that homosexuality is a choice and that prison rape is proof of that.
In Phoenix on Wednesday, Carson said, “Rounding up 11 million people and deporting them, you know it may sound good to some people, but that’s not pragmatic."
Whether Carson said what Welch says he did will have to wait until video evidence surfaces.
But at least one conservative site is already defending Carson — just in case it turns out the report is accurate.
From Red State:
If we see an armed drug gangster crossing the border, we have two options: wait until they’re on our side of the border and stop them, or venture into Mexico and grab them there. Once you consider that, then it’s clear Ben Carson is talking about the right thing. Getting them here is vastly preferable to committing what could be considered acts of war against Mexico.
During the rally on Wednesday, Carson pointed out that Trump's plan for immigration would cost up to $200 million, something Carson says the country cannot afford.
"We’re borrowing money from China in order to give it to Pakistan," Carson said via AZFamily.com. "That doesn’t make any sense."
Carson's thinking is, while he'd like to close off the border, it still extends all the way around the U.S. He also offered up a solution that would put undocumented immigrants on a guest-worker program that would have them paying taxes and a back-tax penalty until they became legal in the U.S.
While Carson remains a long shot, he still has a rabid number of followers and supporters. In June, Carson won the Western Conservative Summit’s Republican presidential straw poll in Denver. A crowd of his supporters flash-mobbed that convention when 150 members of the Young Conservative Leaders began a choreographed dance and celebration for Carson.
And, according to AZCetral.com, Carson drew a larger crowd at his Phoenix rally on Wednesday than Donald Trump did back in July.
Carson was scheduled to tour the Arizona border following his rally.
