FOX "Hannity"- Transcript: Carson Interview

Interview

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HANNITY: All right, here with reaction, the author of the brand-new book, "A More Perfect Union: What We the People Can Do to Reclaim our Constitutional Liberties," 2016 Republican presidential candidate Dr. Benjamin Carson.

I don't know if that's an invitation to attack Donald Trump, or maybe Donald Trump is hoping you attack him. How do you take that?

DR. BEN CARSON, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I take it as quite humorous. You know, he's going to be waiting a long time if he's waiting for me to attack him because, you know, we have such huge problems in this country right now, and I'm really going to be focusing my attention on that.

And that was the reason that I wasn't all that animated in the last CNN debate because it was all about, you know, Here's my dog, sic 'em, you know? You know, that kind of stuff is foolishness as far as I'm concerned.

HANNITY: But isn't a debate an opportunity, when you -- when they do get to you, to really lay out your plans, your ideas, your visions and differentiate yourself from the other candidates?

CARSON: And that's the kind of debate that I'm looking forward to. And hopefully, as time goes on, we will get into substance and real solutions. That's what I want to look forward to.

HANNITY: All right, I want to go to the Democratic debate the other night. And the question came up, do black lives matter or do all lives matter? And I want you to watch the answer.

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HANNITY: And 4 of the 5 agreed that they would choose black lives matter! Now, maybe I'm old-fashioned, but why do I believe that every single life matters, Dr. Carson? You're a physician.

CARSON: Well, you, like me, believe that this is the United States of America, not the divided states of America. And we should be looking at how do we take all of our people into consideration.

This is a very serious issue. We only have 330 million people. China, India have more than a billion people. That means we need to develop all of our people. We need to get the most bang for the buck out of all of our people, and our policies should be aimed at promoting everyone getting a good education, providing the right kind of opportunity. It strengthens us. It strengthens the fabric of our country. That's what we need to be worried about, not how we divide ourselves up into little special groups.

HANNITY: Is that a racist comment?

CARSON: Which one?

HANNITY: Black lives matter...

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: When you're given a choice -- when you're given the choice, do black lives matter, do all lives matter and you pick one race, is that racist?

CARSON: Well, I believe that the people who started that thought that they were doing something good. I hope that they will reassess and think more globally.

You know, I have, you know, gone on record talking about, you know, particularly in the black community, if you're really going to be concerned about the lives, let's talk about the abortions, the number one cause of death in the black community. And let's talk about the homicides. Let's talk about all of it.

But more importantly, as a whole society, let's talk about the values and principles that made us into a great nation. And let's talk about the compassion that we have for each other and what we can do to strengthen ourselves.

You know, we have global jihadists who want to come in here and destroy us and our way of life. The last thing we need to do is to pit ourselves against each other, get into our respective corners and throw hand grenades at each other. This is absolutely the wrong way to be going right now.

CARSON: Let me ask you then specifically, because if you look at minority communities all across America, they have been disproportionately negatively impacted by the policies of President Obama now the last seven years.

CARSON: Exactly.

HANNITY: That means more are in poverty, more are unemployed, more are out of the labor force. So my question to you is, how do you get these people that are using food stamps, getting food stamps, in poverty, out of work, not even counted anymore by the government?

What is your plan specifically to get these people back into the mainstream of society, contributing and prospering and succeeding and bringing their talents to fruition?

CARSON: Well, we have to understand what are the forces that are keeping people down. You know, we have the most powerful economic engine that the world has ever known, but it's very difficult for that engine to operate with so many regulations.

It wasn't meant that the government would be into every aspect of our lives and controlling everything. They need to go back and read the Constitution. They need to read, you know, my book, you know, "A More Perfect Union," and find out what the duties of the government are.

But every one of those regulations costs us in terms of goods and services. But it hurts poor people and middle class people much more than it does wealthy people.

You know, quite frankly, Sean, you and I, if we go to the store and the box of detergent has gone up 30 cents, it doesn't affect us, but it affects someone who is poor. It affects a middle class person who has a big shopping cart full of multiple things that have gone up 30 cents.

So you know, we need to be thinking about that kind of thing. We also need to be looking at the national debt. This administration has driven the national debt to unsustainable levels. That national debt has a deleterious effect on us because the Fed is stuck. They can't really raise the interest rates because the debt service is just much too high, if you raise the interest rates to a normal level.

And poor people and middle class people have no good mechanism for increasing their earnings like they used to because of that. Also, banks are not incentivized to make loans to small people. And where does your business go?

You know, this is just -- I'm just scratching the surface, but you know, the fact of the matter is, the right kind of policies, getting things moving again -- we don't need to divide ourselves up. We need to make a situation available so that everybody can climb out of that pit of dependency and become part of the fabric and success of America.

HANNITY: Let me ask you one last question because I assume there's a correlation between your rise in the polls and the level of attacks that have been coming your way. And very specifically, you performed as a medical doctor 15,000-plus surgeries. You consulted on thousands of others. There were six cases in which you were sued, and a big story that they're trying to turn into a headline is you left a sponge in some person's brain.

And I wanted to give you a chance to explain to people the truth of that. And number two, the level of experience that you had and the types of surgeries you performed.

CARSON: Well, you know, there is a certain type of operation that we do called a microvascular decompression. And we put these little micro- sponges in between the vessels and the nerve to keep the vessel from pounding on the nerve, and that generally alleviates the pain. Sometimes, people react to the sponges, very, very rare. In that particular case, there was a reaction to it. You know, there's nothing you can do about that except, obviously, if it's causing problems, to remove it. And you know...

HANNITY: All right -- yes. Go ahead.

CARSON: ... this is a desperate attempt, just a desperate attempt to find some dirt.

HANNITY: All right, Dr. Carson. Always good to see you. Thank you for being with us, sir.

CARSON: All right. You, too.

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