With the latest
Quinnipiac poll showing him tied for first place with four other GOP hopefuls, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said he believes there is a possibility he could actually become president.
The campaign is the first political race for the retired neurosurgeon, but that recent poll put him at 10 percent, tied for first, with the likes of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
When asked Sunday by ABC's
"This Week" host George Stephanopoulos, "Are you starting to believe you can be president?" Carson replied, "I certainly believe that that is a possibility."
But, he added, voters should look at everything all the candidates are saying before making up their minds.
Carson also addressed the statement by one of his presidential rivals, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who
recently blamed the creation of the Islamic State (ISIS) on Republican hawks.
"That certainly would not be my take on it," Carson said. "I believe that we kind of stirred things up when we went in there, but we stirred them up even worse when we left there and left an unstable situation."
The "Carson Doctrine," he said, would be to use American military force only when it is clearly, "in the interest of America and the American people."
That wasn't the case when the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, but it is now with ISIS threatening to harm Americans on U.S. soil, he said.
Carson agreed with candidate Rick Santorum who has suggested putting in a force of 10,000 boots on the ground. But Carson said he would do so only with consultation of military brass.
On the Patriot Act, set to expire on Monday if Paul is successful in his attempt to keep the Senate from renewing it on Sunday, Carson said he agrees that the government should not be collecting masses of bulk metadata from phone calls. Instead, phone companies should continue to keep the records, and the government can subpoena them as needed, he said.
Carson has come under fire for continuing to make paid speeches after announcing his presidential run, but he defended the action on Sunday, saying he had made prior commitments and has only four left.
"I haven't accepted any paid speeches for many, many months, and I won't be accepting any others," he said.
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