Ben Carson responded to the controversy surrounding his youth insisting, “I have always said I expect to be vetted,” but that he’s only being vetted this intensely because he’s “a threat” to the “secular progressive movement in this country.”
Appearing on NBC’e “Meet the Press” on Sunday in an interview with Chris Jansing, Carson continued, “You said this 30 years ago, you said this 20 years ago, you said this 30 years ago, you said this 20 years ago, this didn’t exist, this didn’t exist, I have not seen that with anyone else.”
“If you could show me where that has happened to somebody else, I will take that statement back,” Carson explained. (RELATED: Team Carson: ‘Politico Story Is An Outright Lie’)
Jansing brought up Bill Clinton and Barack Obama’s birth certificate, but Carson said the vetting they received was “not like this, not even close.”
“I have never seen this before and many other people who are politically experienced tell me they have never seen it before either,” Carson explained. (RELATED: Carson Blasts CNN For ‘Lies’ Relating To Investigation Into His Youth [VIDEO])
Regarding his mother or brother speaking on his behalf to verify some of his stories from his childhood, Carson indicated his mother has Alzheimer’s and his brother is “not interested in talking to the media.”
When asked about why he was receiving this intense scrutiny into his background, Carson suggested it was “because I’m a threat to the progressive, the secular progressive movement in this country. I’m a very big threat because you know, they can look at the polling data and they can see that you know Im the candidate that’s most likely able to beat Hillary Clinton. They see that.”
Jansing later asked if Carson was having “fun” running for president and Carson said, “Would I have preferred doing something else? Certainly, but it is important to me and when I think about the sacrifices that were made by those who preceded us in order that we might have the freedom that we have now, this is the very least that I could do.”