Officially in the GOP White House Race, Carson Pledges 'Blunt' Talk: Watch

Acknowledging he’s the political neophyte in a likely crowded Republican field, Dr. Ben Carson promised a blunt assessment of America’s problems when he returned to his native Detroit Monday to announce his candidacy for the GOP nomination for president.

Carson, 63, vowed to shrink the size and scope of government, and told cheering supporters at the Music Hall Center for Performing Arts “it’s time for people to rise up and take the government back,” The Detroit News reports.

A celebrated neurosurgeon best known for his work separating conjoined twins as the head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Center, Carson gained political prominence at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013 when he decried the “moral decay” in America.

Carson, raised in poverty by a single mother on Detroit’s southwest side, said claims that he wants to kick people off welfare is a “blatant lie,” though he previously has said that he hopes he can be an inspiration to other African-Americans growing up in inner cities.

“I have no desire to get rid of the safety net for people who need them,” Carson said. “(But) I have a strong desire to get rid of programs that create dependency for able-bodied people.”

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In an interview with the Detroit Free Press when the movie based on his book, “Gifted Hands,” was shot, Carson said the “main thing I’m hoping is that a lot of young people will recognize themselves in me, recognize that they themselves are the most influential factor in achieving their goals,”

“Know that it is not enough to just wish, that it takes a lot of hard work and dedication, but it can be done,” the retired pediatric neurosurgeon, who now lives in Florida, said in the earlier interview with the Free Press.

“He’s a Problem Solver”

Positions like that make Carson popular among conservatives in the Republican Party, who praised him Monday for what they think would be a commonsense approach to governing.

“He’s a problem solver,” Wayne Newman,75, of Northville, told The Detroit News. “And he’s got the love of Christ in him.”

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Before his official announcement, Carson spoke at a prayer breakfast with pastors at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. In a nod to the GOP’s evangelical voters, he peppered his remarks with references to God and said he won’t shy away from speaking about his faith on the campaign trail.

“We have to get back to the point where we are not ashamed of being people of faith,” Carson, a Seventh-day Adventist, said. “It doesn’t mean that we force our beliefs on anybody else. But no one should be able to curtail what we say and what we do and how we believe.”

“That’s going to be up to us to have the courage to stand up to the secular progressives who want to drive God out of everything and as they do so, our country is going down in a tailspin at a rapid speed,” he continued. “We need to bring the values and the principles back again.”

Evolution ”Requires ... More Faith Than Believing in God”

The speech before the pastors touched on everything from his belief in creationism to the racial unrest in Baltimore and other U.S. cities stemming from the police-involved deaths of black men.

For evolution scientists to support their beliefs “requires a great deal of faith, probably more faith than believing in God,” he said.

Christian radio talk show host Tim Berends, who flew from Las Vegas to Detroit to hear Carson speak, thanked Carson for publicly stating his belief in creationism.

“I appreciate that,” Berends told The Detroit News. “When he stands up for the Bible, when he stands up for creationism, he’s going to offend a lot of people. I think that’s what people appreciate about Ben Carson.”

On rising tensions between police and the public, Carson said:

“People have lost hope and therefore an opportunity arises for to break into a place and to loot it and stuff your pocket with things. Some people actually find it easier to collect benefits than to work a minimum wage job. So can you really blame someone who decides to take that. But what it is doing is extinguishing the can do attitude.”

“I’m Not Politically Correct”

He also warned supporters to expect some blunt talk from him.

“I gotta tell you something: I’m not politically correct, and I’m probably never going to be politically correct because I’m not a politician. I don’t want to be a politician,” Carson said.

Carson also spoke Monday morning at the Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine, the four-year-old Detroit prep school named in his honor. There, he challenged students not to give up on their dreams, even if their first attempts are unsuccessful, as his were when an adviser said he should jettison his plans to attend medical school.

“People are always going to tell you what you can’t do,” Carson told the students. “But you don’t have to accept that.”

His unapologetic bluntness has made him a rising star among conservatives, but also worries GOP strategists. Among his gaffes in the past include a statement shortly after announcing his exploratory committee that being gay is a choice. He also has compared President Obama’s Affordable Care Act to slavery, and he has said the United States resembles Nazi Germany.

“I don’t wander off into those extraneous areas that can be exploited,” he told WKRC-TV in Cincinnati. “I have learned that.”

Polling in the Middle of the Pack

Carson is expected to be the only high-profile African-American in the race. He could help Republicans gain momentum among minority voters, and give the GOP some advantage in a tough general election swing state, like Michigan.

Carson had planned to follow up his announcement with stump speeches in Iowa, where the state’s evangelical voters offer fertile ground for his message, but canceled those to head to Texas to see his critically ill mother.

In some early polls, Carson was performing better than some better-known evangelical candidates, including former Sen. Rick Santorum, who won Iowa’s early caucuses in 2012, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won Iowa in 2008.

Carson and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul were both polling at around 10 percent in a national poll conducted last month by Public Policy Polling. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who hasn’t formally announced, was leading (20 percent), followed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (17 percent) and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (16 percent).

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina of California also announced her candidacy Monday, and Huckabee is expected to officially jump into the race Tuesday. Previously announced candidates include Cruz, Paul and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

On the Democratic side, only Hillary Rodham Clinton has formally announced.

Watch Carson’s announcement below.