SPLC Removes Ben Carson from 'Extremist list,' issues apology

Dr. Ben Carson speaks at CPAC 2014 (Photo by Gage Skidmore)

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has removed Dr. Ben Carson from its “extremist list” after coming under heightened scrutiny in recent days.

“In October 2014, we posted an “Extremist File” of Dr. Ben Carson. This week, as
we’ve come under intense criticism for doing so, we’ve reviewed our profile and
have concluded that it did not meet our standards, so we have taken it down and
apologize to Dr. Carson for having posted it,” SPLC said in a release.

The SPLC initially named his pro-traditional marriage stance, opposition to ObamaCare, and support for a flat tax as reasons for placing him on the list alongside members of the KKK, Neo-Nazis, and the Westboro Baptist Church.

The liberal group isn’t completely backing down from their criticism of Dr. Carson, stating they want to look into if a “better researched” version of his profile should be included in their list.

“We laud Dr. Carson for his many contributions to medicine and his philanthropic
work, and we, like so many others, are inspired by his personal story. Nevertheless, particularly because Dr. Carson is such a prominent person, we believe that his views should be closely examined,” the release said, before going on to list some of the quotes they believe to be “extreme.”

Here are just a few of those quotes:

“[I]f we can redefine marriage as between two men or two women or any other way
based on social pressures as opposed to between a man and a woman, we will
continue to redefine it in any way that we wish, which is a slippery slope with a
disastrous ending, as witnessed in the dramatic fall of the Roman Empire.”
—America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great, 2012

“Obamacare is really the worst thing that has happened in this nation since
slavery. And … in a way, it is slavery.”
—Values Voter Summit, Washington, D.C., Oct. 11, 2013

“They’re the most racist people there are. Because they put you in a little category, a
box: ‘You have to think this way, how dare you come off the plantation?’”
—To radio talk show host Mark Levin, April 1, 2013, talking about white
liberal critics of racism

“Citizens should be able to own weapons, they should not have to report what
weapons they own so that somebody can come and collect those weapons before,
you know, they start their martial law.”
— On Washington Times Radio, April 23, 2014

In 2013 Yellowhammer named the SPLC one of the top 5 liberal groups in the state.

The Montgomery-based SPLC is known nationwide for utilizing the courts to move the country further and further to the left.

Most recently they filed a suit in federal court against Alabama’s first school choice bill. Ironically, SPLC deputy legal counsel Jerri Katzerman told MSNBC that they are “fighting for all children who are in failing schools and don’t have an option to escape them.”

Because stopping school choice legislation gives kids and families more choices, of course.

Dr. Carson was raised by a single mother in a poverty-stricken inner-city Detroit neighborhood. In his bestselling books he describes starting out as a horrible student who eventually learned the value of education. He went on to graduate from Yale, then the University of Michigan Medical School before starting a medical career that culminated with being named the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

Some conservative groups have been trying to draft Dr. Carson to run for President in 2016, though he has has been reluctant to be forthcoming about a potential presidential run.

Last summer Dr. Carson told Newsweek magazine, “Every place I go, people are saying I got to do this. I certainly can’t just turn my back on my nation that is in so much trouble,” signaling that he may be warming to the idea of running.