Dr. Ben Carson, who became one of Donald Trump's key advisers after dropping his own bid for the 2016 GOP nomination, said Friday that his end goal wasn't to obtain a position in the president-elect's cabinet or in the government, but to help the United States "move in the right direction."
"As far as a position is concerned, you can do that inside or outside, quite frankly," the retired neurosurgeon told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program. "We're talking about all the possibilities of what we can do to really make America great for everybody."
Meanwhile, repealing and replacing Obamacare will be a major agenda for the Trump administration, and Carson said House Speaker Paul Ryan has offered some "excellent solutions and certainly will be part of the discussion."
"Obviously, we want to bring everybody into the tent," said Carson. "I think it's even worthwhile listening to the other side. I think that was one of the big mistake with Obamacare. They locked the Republicans out."
But that doesn't include putting Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber in Trump's Cabinet, Carson joked with the show's hosts.
"Put him in a cabinet and lock him up," Carson said, laughing.
And now that Trump's been elected, one of the key things for him to do is what hasn't been done historically, said Carson, and that is "keep your promise."
"Let's actually work for school choice and for a voucher system," said Carson. "Let's actually look at real prison reform so that we can develop our people. The more people we have who are actually working and are part of the system, the better off we are.
"We don't have to pull those people along. It costs a lot of money to keep someone incarcerated or keep someone on public assistance."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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