ATLANTA – Less than 24 hours after saying all foreign visitors to the U.S. should be monitored, Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson now calls his own proposal “ridiculous.”
The apparent contradiction reflects the difficulty Republicans are having navigating the rhetoric of GOP presidential contender Donald Trump, who roiled the race again Monday by calling for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.”
Responding to Trump’s statement, Carson released a statement saying “everyone visiting our country should register and be monitored during their stay.”
On Tuesday, he agreed with CNN host Jake Tapper when questioned about the practicality of monitoring foreign visitors moving around in the United States.
“We can’t do that,” Carson said. “That would be ridiculous.”
The Carson campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the contradiction.
Carson, who is campaigning in Atlanta on Tuesday, stood by his call for visitor registration. He cited the First Amendment to emphasize that he wouldn’t discriminate based on a visitor’s religion.
Most Republican candidates and party leaders have condemned Trump’s plan.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush called Trump “unhinged,” and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said the billionaire businessman should “go to hell.” Carson avoided such condemnations, and told Tapper that if Trump wins the GOP nomination, Republican leaders would “have an obligation to respect the will of the people.”
The CNN interview is not the first instance of Carson walking back his policy ideas as he discussed how he would wield government power in the name of national security.
Last month in South Carolina, Carson said he supported monitoring “a mosque or any church or any organization or any school or any press corps where there was a lot of radicalization and things that were anti-American.”
On Dec. 2, also in South Carolina, Carson clarified that he doesn’t “think we need to be spying on all Americans” and said any searches should come only after the government has secured a warrant that complies with constitutional protections against illegal searches and seizures.