With Dr. Ben Carson now leading the GOP pack in some polls, many of his detractors are insisting the former brain surgeon is unsuited for the presidency. Others are wildly enthusiastic about him, drawn to his calm, rational voice and his flaunting of political correctness. But what many of his detractors and supporters share is their not actually knowing much about the man. Carson recently helped fill in some of the blanks at the North Texas Presidential Forum, held at the 40,000 member Prestonwood Baptist Church near Dallas.

The format was simple: Tell your personal story of faith and freedom and how you came to appreciate it and then sit down with Dr. Jack Graham, head Pastor at Prestonwood, to answer pointed questions about your character, values and plans.

In Dr. Carson’s talk captured below, he shares some of his traumatic experiences from his childhood, describes his education and rise to fame, how he came to run for president, and how he came by his extraordinarily even temperament. Below that is video of his Q&A with Dr. Graham. (The complete audio file of both is at the bottom.)

 

 

 

Nine Questions for Dr. Carson

Dr. Jack Graham – Question 1 (0:50-video): “Let’s talk about violence in America.  What do we do to bring about reconciliation and healing? What is your focus? How can you help us in this?”

Carson: “I went to Ferguson a couple of months ago and the people there were sitting down with the officials and the police. They had all over the course of a year become friendly with each other. They had developed relationships. We have to work on relationships. We have to have them before things happen.”

Carson then broadened the question beyond just the cessation of violence: “We have to invest in people … we have to develop all our people. We cannot afford to lose a single one of them.”

Dr Jack Graham – Question 2 (2:53-video): “How do you see yourself being a uniter rather than a divider?”

Carson pivoted to the national debt. “Our fiscal responsibility is un — believable!” he said, and added that Thomas Jefferson said it was immoral to pass debt to the next generation. “If we could bring him back now, he would just stroke out immediately!”

Dr. Jack Graham – Question 3 (5:35-video): “Global terrorism — You’re president and you get that call at 2 AM. What is your process? How do you go about making decisions in a situation like that?”

Carson: “First of all, you have to have already thought through most scenarios. Second, you have to have your core team.”

Carson went on to talk about how George Washington worked with his cabinet: “He brought them in on everything … He talked about the place of “wisdom” in choosing a core team … Wisdom is the most important thing. Knowledge is important, but wisdom is by far the most important thing.”

Dr. Jack Graham – Question 4 (8:14-video): “How does your faith affect your leadership and your ability to make good decisions and how does it prepare you for the presidency? — And for those who would question your experience and say, ‘Has he been an executive?’ How would you answer that? How are you prepared to be the president?

Carson responded by talking about his lifetime of building teams to do things that had never been done before and the amazing success those teams achieved: “The most important thing is putting together teams to accomplish things that have never been done before … very, very complex things. I know everybody thinks that what they do is the most complex thing, but I can tell you, it ain’t brain surgery.”

Dr. Jack Graham – Question 5 (10:42-video): “You are concerned that the nation is becoming more and more secular and therefore without God. Knowing that the president is not a pastor — how can you as president affect the spiritual climate and how can we turn back the tide of secularism?

Carson answered, “I think we just need to remind people that we do have a Judeo-Christian foundation.” He went on to say that if God is in our founding documents, in our courts, and on our money and we are not allowed to talk about it, then “What in the world is that? In medicine, we call it schizophrenia.”

Dr. Jack Graham – Question 6 (13:10-video): “What are your views on the sanctity of life and the value of all life — born and unborn?”

Carson: “I have operated on babies in the mother’s womb … and there is no way anyone is going to convince me that it is a mass of cells that is not a human being.”

He also addressed the charges by some that he was hypocritical because he had allegedly performed abortions. He explained how medical processes and pathology processes worked, even after operations, and then turned on the accusers with this statement: “The Left … they try to throw lots of things against the wall and see if it will stick. But I would be more disappointed if they didn’t do that, because it would mean that I wasn’t getting to them and I’m going to keep getting to them.”

Dr Jack Graham – Question 7 (15:42-video): “How do we pray for you and your family these days? What’s on your heart the most?”

Carson: “Pray for wisdom and fortitude. I see my candidacy as something that can open up a very good thing in America. There are those who think that leadership in America is for a political class and I believe that it was designed for citizen-statesmen. I believe that if I am successful, a lot of people who are not career politicians but who are very smart and capable will enter the fray … and that is what America needs.”

Dr. Jack Graham – Question 8 (17:11-video): “You have been presenting your ideas through books and now you have a brand new book. I’d like for you to tell people what it says.”

Carson: “It is called A More Perfect Union. It is about the Constitution.  Most everybody knows that we have a constitution, but not everybody knows what is in it or what was behind its creation. The constitution is there to make sure that we stay a free country … Civil cases are to be tried at a local or a state level — why? because the people are supposed to have a say on how they live.”

Carson described how we need to understand the importance of checks and balances better, and that we need to know who we are sending to public office and support them because they need courage: “They have to be willing to stick a stake in the ground and they have to be willing to challenge— they need to be able to say to [the president] ‘You do that and we’re going to defund everything including your breakfast.'”

Dr. Jack Graham – Question 9 (20:07-video): “What about all this judicial activism that we have going on? What is the solution to that and what kind of judges would you nominate, including for the Supreme Court?”

“That is going to be crucial,” Carson said, and later added, “We’re going to look for judges who actually understand the Constitution as demonstrated by their activities in the past, not by what they say in an interview.”

Audio File of Dr. Carson’s Entire Session (35:03):