Tavis Smiley: Ben Carson a 'Black Bull in a Republican China Shop'

GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson has been respected by the black community for years because of his abilities as a top brain surgeon, but he risks losing that admiration over some of the things he has said over the past few months, said talk show host and author Tavis Smiley.

"He's a black bull in a Republican china shop," Smiley said Thursday on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor." 

"And if he's not careful, he is going to do himself irreparable damage. He's going to do the party damage."

Smiley said if he were close to Carson, he would "call for intervention to stop him, what he is doing to himself and his reputation."

Carson recently was criticized by syndicated columnist Cynthia Tucker, who wrote that Carson "will likely be remembered as the GOP’s latest black mascot, a court jester, a minstrel show. He’ll be the Herman Cain of 2016."

"O'Reilly Factor" host Bill O'Reilly called the column an unwarranted attack that Tucker only wrote because she disagrees with Carson on Obamacare, which Carson has likened to slavery.

Smiley said the "attack" was no different than Carson's "attacks" on President Barack Obama.

Tucker's piece makes it clear that Carson has been respected for years, Smiley said, and she doesn't like the idea that he will allow himself "to be a token at the risk of his reputation for the party."

Carson "ought to stick to neurosurgery," Smiley said. "Politics is not his game."

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