Ben Carson Speaks Out On Syrian Refugees And Planned Parenthood Shooting

After a trip to Jordan, Ben Carson spoke to various news sources about Syrian refugees and the Planned Parenthood shooting.

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson has been clear that he believes bringing Syrian refugees into the United States is searching for trouble. From his perspective, it would be difficult to figure out who was a true refugee and who was a terrorist looking for a way in.

“…We have to have in place screening mechanisms that allow us to determine who the mad dogs are, quite frankly,” Ben Carson said according to Politico.

There was a great deal of criticism directed at Ben Carson after that. Perhaps that was what sparked his desire to take a surprise trip to Jordan in order to meet some of the Syrian refugees.

The weekend trip to Jordan, described as a “fact-finding” trip by the presidential campaign for Ben Carson, was done in complete secrecy. Reporters were not alerted and he didn’t grant any media access according to the Washington Post.

When reporters caught up to him, Ben Carson admitted to meeting with Syrian refugees to find out what exactly it was that they wanted. He insists that they told him they just wanted to go home.

“I had an opportunity to talk with many of the Syrians, and that was very eye-opening, asking them what is their desire,” Ben Carson told CBS. “And their main desire is to be repatriated in their homeland.”

“They are satisfied to be in the refugee camps if the refugee camps are adequately funded. Recognize that in these camps they have schools, they have recreational facilities that are really quite nice,” Carson added in a statement to CNN.

“And they’re putting in all kind of things that make life more tolerable,” Ben Carson continued. “Would it be better to integrate them into society? Yes, and I’ve certainly talked to some people about that. But you have to make progress as you go.”

According to the GOP candidate, the refugee camp in Jordan would be able to hold a lot more refugees if they were given help by international sources. He suggested that if the international community could come together to donate $3 billion to Jordan for the funding of the camp, there would be no reason for the debate on whether the Syrian people would have to be relocated further from home.

“We’re hearing that they all want to come here to the United States. And that’s not what they want. They want to go back home,” Ben Carson told ABC in an interview that was conducted live from the Jordanian capital, Amman. “But they said the United States and other nations could be much more supportive of the herculean efforts manifested by the Jordanians in taking in people at a lot of expense to themselves.”

“…They cannot continue that without help from the international community,” Carson added.

In the same interview with ABC, Carson was asked to weigh in on the tragedy that occurred at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic Friday.

Immediately, Ben Carson condemned the attack as a hate crime and blamed both pro-life and pro-choice supporters for causing the extremist behavior. He suggested that if we “get rid of the rhetoric from either side and actually talk about the facts” it would be easier to prevent other similar tragedies from happening elsewhere.

“Unfortunately, there is a lot of extremism coming from all areas,” Ben Carson insisted. “It’s one of the biggest problems that I think is threatening to tear our country apart. We get into our separate corners and we hate each other and we want to destroy those with whom we disagree. That comes from both sides, so there’s no saint here in this equation.”

[Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images]