Dr. Carson has advice for supporters of former President Donald J. Trump ahead of Iowa’s Jan. 15 caucus.
“The Deep State is terrified because he [Trump] now knows who they are,” the neurosurgeon told a crowd at a Team Trump Faith Event at Grace Baptist Church in Marion, Iowa.
“The system doesn’t want to be fixed. That’s why they will do anything to keep him out of office,” said Dr. Carson, who previously served as President Trump’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
“Be looking for dirty tricks,” he added.
“They will be coming up with all kinds of things, but you know what? God is in charge,” he continued.
At one point, Dr. Carson’s phone went off. It happened not too long after he spoke about irregularities with poll watchers and signature matching for mail-in ballots—two issues that some supporters of former President Trump raised after the 2020 election—as well as a range of other topics important to President Trump’s base.
“It’s the FBI,” he quipped, drawing laughter.
While some of Dr. Carson’s language resonated with an audience sick of feeling politically persecuted, his message wasn’t all doom and gloom.
He began by rejecting cynicism about the possibilities for those who work hard and prize education.
“There’s so many people who say the American Dream is dead. It’s alive and well,” he said.
Race, he argued, is no impermeable barrier to prosperity.
“If you look at Nigerians who immigrated to this country or Bahamians—they have black skin, but if you go into one of their homes, what do you see? A bachelor’s degree is the baseline,” Dr. Carson continued.
Mr. Carson’s speech came ahead of an appearance by one of President Trump’s competitors, Vivek Ramaswamy, just a few miles away in Cedar Rapids.
Former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley also had a Jan. 11 “Pick Nikki” event in Linn County, home to both Marion and Cedar Rapids.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke elsewhere in Iowa, including Dubuque, about 75 miles northeast of Marion along the Mississippi River.
Carson Defends Trump’s Abortion Stance
The Team Trump Faith Event comes soon after President Trump’s Iowa town hall on Fox News.
Asked about his stance on abortion, the former president said that “I happen to be for the exceptions, like Ronald Reagan, with the life of the mother, rape, incest.”
He also emphasized the need to “win elections,” suggesting that abortion battles weren’t electoral winners for Republicans.
A Seventh-Day Adventist, Dr. Carson stood out as a staunch opponent of abortion during his run for the presidency almost a decade ago.
ABC News reported in 2015 that a spokesperson for his campaign said the doctor “believes abortion is not acceptable after conception” when pressed on his view of exceptions.
When asked about President Trump’s town hall comments, Dr. Carson said he thinks the president shares his belief that “we should be more engaged in conversion than we are in coercion.”
“If we coerce people to do things the way we want them to do it, all we’re going to do is create more division and hatred,” he told The Epoch Times.
Trump ‘Has What It Takes’
While not everyone at Faith Baptist Church, multiple attendees voiced enthusiasm for President Trump and Dr. Carson.
“Trump has a track record. He has what it takes. He’s the only one that can do it,” Emma Aquino-Nemecek told The Epoch Times. She was sitting with friends in the front pew.
Ms. Aquino-Nemecek is a serial volunteer for Republican candidates, including Dr. Carson and the late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Only Mr. McCain came in for criticism.
“Sometimes he yell[ed]. I don’t like that at all,” she said.
Dr. Carson, by contrast, was “the best … very calm.”
Now Ms. Aquino-Nemecek is all set to be a Trump caucus captain.
“I don’t see Nikki Haley as being a big factor,” said Tom Sandersfeld, a real estate broker who was there with his wife, Sheryl Sandersfeld.
“We like Trump’s policies, and Ben Carson was HUD secretary, and I’m guessing he'll be involved in the administration of Trump somehow,” Mr. Sandersfeld told The Epoch Times when asked why he had come to Grace Baptist to hear Dr. Carson speak.
Mr. Sandersfeld thinks Iowans’ biggest issue will be the border.
“We’re being invaded,” he said.
