Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson reflected in an in-depth interview on his year as he considered — and then announced — running for the White House as a first-time politician, calling the endeavor "brutal."
"It’s been a pretty amazing year, no question about it. Highs and lows. Obviously, going through a process like this is pretty brutal," he said in an extended interview published Monday by the Washington Post. "Everybody told me that it would be, so that doesn’t particularly surprise me."
When asked to elaborate on the process being brutal, Carson responded with an answer about personal attacks. "Well, the fact that people try to find a scandal. Of course there are no scandals, which is pretty frustrating for them, I'm sure," he said. "When they couldn't find a scandal, they try to impugn your integrity and say, 'You're a liar.' Just stuff. Then they would put it out there. When it's refuted, they never come back and say, 'Oh, I guess that actually did not happen.' They just go on to the next thing as long as they've figured out a way to hurt you."
Carson, who has dropped in the polls due to organizational struggles and a perception that he is too inexperienced on national security, said that he remains in the race "because the country is worth saving. Now, if the people who preceded us had had the attitude of "It's bad, I'm not going to fight for this," where would we be? You've got to fight."
Carson also has money as motivation. Fund-raising has come easy for the retired neurosurgeon, who is expected to announce he has taken in $22 million in the quarter ending Thursday, according to the Washington Examiner.
Carson currently ranks fourth out of 13 Republicans running for the White House with 9.3 percent, according to the latest RealClear Politics average. He surged in the fall during which he appeared to be a challenge to Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who currently leads the field by nearly 19 points.
