Breaking: Ben Carson Tells Local Ohio TV Station ‘I’m Announcing My Candidacy For President’

Political novice but Tea Party darling Ben Carson minutes ago said he’s joining the Republican race for the White House.

63-year old retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson tonight told a local Cincinnati, Ohio TV station he is running for president. 

“I’m willing to be part of the equation and therefore, I’m announcing my candidacy for President of the United States of America,” Carson, who has not been shy about his intentions to seeking the presidency, despite having never run for political office, told WKRC.

Carson, who tonight called himself “a reluctant warrior,” acknowledged that fact in tonight’s interview.

LOOK: GOP Presidential Candidate Ben Carson’s Top 10 Most Anti-Gay Comments

“Many people have suggested to me that I should run for president, even though I’m not a politician,” he said. “I began to ask myself why are people clamoring for me to do this? I represented a lot of the same thoughts that they have. I’m not 100 percent sure ‘politics as usual’ is going to save us. I think we are in a severe problem … a problematic situation.”

Carson also took an early swing at critics who say he has no relevant experience.

“You must have enough humility to be able to work with others to recognize you’re not necessarily the expert in everything. But you can with very good advice, make good decisions.”

Carson’s public presence since he first became a possible politician in 2013 has been constantly dogged by his virulent ignorance of homosexuality and the extreme anti-gay comments he repeatedly makes.

Those comments came to a crescendo, setting him back greatly in the public’s perception, in March when he insisted that prison “absolutely” provided the perfect example that being gay is a choice. Carson said that “a lot of people who go into prison go into prison straight — and when they come out, they’re gay.”

WATCH: SNL Mercilessly Mocks Ben Carson For Saying Prison Proves Being Gay Is A Choice

He was roundly mocked, even by Vice President Biden, at an HRC dinner. “Now, every ridiculous assertion from Dr. Carson on – I mean, Jesus. God. Oh, God. I mean, it’s kind of hard to fathom, isn’t it?” Biden said.

The New York Times tonight noted Carson “burst onto the political scene in 2013 with a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast that denounced the country’s ‘moral decay’ and Mr. Obama’s health care law. The Wall Street Journal followed with an editorial, ‘Ben Carson for President.'”

Carson, the Times added, “spent five hours at the conservative Heritage Foundation recently undergoing tutorials on domestic and foreign policy,” a clear sign of his unpreparedness for office.

 

This is a breaking news and developing story and has been updated.

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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license