from at studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. charlie rose: ben carson is a narrow surgeon. rosurgeon who has authored books. one of them was made into a movie about his life and he announced his candidacy for president of the united states. a fact that is stated by the critics and admirers is that he

has no experience. aey disagree on whether it is credential or liability. we welcome ben carson to the table. guest: thank you. al hunt: we know you are a great surgeon. you operated on our son. america has not elected a president with no political experience. why would been carson be different? look at the experience of people in congress and it comes out to under 9000 years. yet, where has that gotten us? it is possible to gain experience. this country rose from nowhere to the pinnacle of the world likely. al hunt: we have had presidents with political experience.

reagan, bush, roosevelt. guest: you can get experience from lots of different areas. al hunt: would it be different if you wanted to hire a baltimore ravens coach with no football background or take a smart person with medical experience and say, you are going to do brain surgery. guest: it requires enormous knowledge to become a surgeon. not the kind of knowledge that you acquire in a year, two years, three years, four years, five years. it is not true of politics. a lot of people want to believe it is true. in fact, it is not true. there are people who have been in politics for decades and you never see them coming up with

any solutions. al hunt: it is an asset, is what you are saying. whot: we need people surround themselves with political experience. if you go to washington dc and you open up the engine -- washington, d.c., and you open up the engine, the reaction is that it is complex and intricate. i do not want to spend 15 years learning the intricacies of the system. i want to concentrate on the way it is supposed to be and how the constitution says it is supposed to work. i can get people who know the intricacies of the engine. al hunt: you have been doing this for more than a year. what have you learned about yourself and america that you did not know? guest: i learned that america has a lot of people who are frightened.

very, very, very unhappy about the direction and they feel they are losing the country. a lot of people who have given up. learned about myself that i cannot do what i want to sit sit and -- what i want to, back and relax. al hunt: you are never going to sit act and relax. guest: my wife was planning on it and she thought that she was finally getting her husband back. potentially could happen to the next generation, it would be impossible to relax. al hunt: in the early stages, you made a number of gaffes. ng gay was at deabeign choice and you paralleled

obamacare to the nazis. is that something you have learned or do you have tough handlers? guest: i learn that using certain terms and phrases -- people cannot hear anything beyond that. "or instance, take the "nazi comment. most of the people in germany did not believe in what hitler was doing. did they open their mouths? no. did they try to stop it? they did not. you can have good intentions and, if you do not do something, you may as well sit down. al hunt: it was interpreted that we were moving the same way as germany did. guest: of course not. , if people listen to what you are saying, have a different take away and they

will not if you use certain phrases. dominatesonald trump everything these days and has pulled ahead. you are the only other genuine outsider non-politician. why bene who want that, carson instead of donald trump? that will be something that i think should be defined by the voters coming up. al hunt: make the case. guest: the case i will make is spent a great deal of time solving complex problems that no one has ever been able to solve before. it is not necessarily because i'm the smartest person who ever existed. i know how to put together the right kinds of resources to solve complex problems. al hunt: couldn't you say the same thing about holding hotels and golf courses? guest: let me continue.

al hunt: i'm sorry. best: there are few who will on the stage to have spent more times in corporate boardrooms than i have. i figured out how to make inks run efficiently in this country and internationally. i'm not aware of anyone who has that,gether a nonprofit 10 havenow, 9 out of succeeded and won major national awards that are only given to one organization. it requires organizational skill and nknow-how. guest: i would like -- al hunt: i would like to see the donald in the operating room. he is your friend. do you agree with them? -- him?

guest: most of the things, i would say there is harmony. this is a marathon. not a sprint. over the course of time, people will hear the solutions for various things. not just myself and donald trump. the entire gamut. they will get to know who we are and not who other people have said we are. i think people will make the right decisions. guest: we will get to those solutions. we will get to those solutions. you have been critical of democrats playing the race card. guest: not just democrats. anybody. al hunt: donald trump started a demonstrably false charge that barack obama is not an american

and it is impossible to imagine him doing that against a white politician. does that bother you? guest: i do not know it was racial. i put out on the table that i don't believe that barack obama was born someone else. al hunt: it has been proven that he wasn't. guest: right. that somebodynd who specifically blocks a lot of his records would cause somebody to be suspicious all stop i do understand that. -- to be suspicious. i do understand that. al hunt: you don't think that truthers? like 9/11 guest: if you are running for

the president of the united states, why would you hide important parts of your history? al hunt: i don't think he really did. guest: who did then? al hunt: i don't think i have ever heard anyone raise the question of john kerry being born in america. guest: i bring the issue up because, having spent years in academia, when somebody goes to columbia university, that is a big jump. it would be informative to find out how that occurred. when you hide something like that, it makes people suspicious. al hunt: i am not sure what was hidden. let's move on.

cut inpose a 10% spending across the board other than defense. orst: whether it is 10% another percentage, it has to be across the board. we have difficulty getting things cut in washington because everybody has a pet project. al hunt: cutting social security 10%? all programs or parts that support that program. let me tell you about social security. the way it works, as you know, we will run out of money in the late 2020s. we need to do something to stabilize it. 63.average age of death was and now, we have approached 80. would you raise

the age and cut benefits? thet: i would offer people ability to opt out of the check. only certain people would be able to take advantage of that. there is 20% who could take advantage of that and that would alleviate a lot of the strain on the program and give you the possibility of enacting gradual raises for people under the age of 55. al hunt: would you cut medical research? nih? guest: when i say cutting everything across the board, this is what i mean. right?: not defense,

guest: what i would do with defense is bring defense back to the appropriate level. the current administration has cut $1 trillion out of defense. al hunt: when you say they are f-35s,o build 2433 there's going to be a new long range bomber, all of those are sacrosanct? guest: let me put this into perspective. the navy, the vessels, they are at the smallest level. in a recent testimony, the commandant of the marine corps said that half of the non-deployed units are not combat-ready. you look at the air force and it

is in dismal shape. you look at the nuclear arsenal and it is archaic. what vladimir putin is doing with the russian arsenal and what the chinese are doing and they build new aircraft carriers and they are trying to dominate space now. al hunt: you would increase spending for space? west: think about the world are living in and the hostilities that are directed towards us. head in the our sand and say, "everything will be ok." or, we can look around and recognize that, if we do not get defense right, nothing else will matter. al hunt: let me ask other questions on the tax side. you said you ascribed to the bible and favor a flat tax

between 10%-15%. guest: a proportional tax. i like using 10%. it is easy to do the math. everybody pays. to get rid of all the duction's -- all the deductions and loopholes. they make the system unfair. al hunt: no charitable right off. guest: people say that all charity will go away. is that really true? when we enacted the tax, were people charitable? of course they were. we will continue to be. away withld you do the earned income tax credit for the working poor? al hunt: i would get rid of all of them.

when you have them, people migrate to them and they manipulate things to take advantage of them. we can find better ways to take care of people. when we're talking about poor people, for whom i have compassion, i recognize that they would appreciate more than on the head, fixing the economy and giving them a ladder for them to climb up and become part of the fabric of the success of this nation. al hunt: a thing we do not know about dr. carson is who he would turn to. economicer or top would president carson turned to? art laffer.e i have had good conversations with them.

i talked to university professors of economics, whose names i will release when i have permission. a number of interactions with people in the 18iness world, having spent years on the kellogg's board. al hunt: anyone strike your fancy? senegal, onet jim of the founders of cosco. of political things, we do not necessarily agree. in terms of business and economics, he is a genius. al hunt: how about donald trump? do you put him in the carson cabinet? one who ise is no running that i would not consider as being helpful. you aboutet me ask

national security and form policy. thatould be the officials you would really turn to for advice on national security and foreign policy? al hunt: again, until i get permission to release -- the one i have is general dees. he has enormous experience. i have talked to a number of generals who you know and people in the cia, as well as experts in foreign affairs. i think everyone will be delightfully surprised during the debates when we get to foreign affairs. al hunt: starting on thursday. what is the security threat facing america.

guest: putting it this way, i would be looking to do everything that we can to quickly shore up the military about m concerned jihadists here and abroad. in the longer term, i am concerned about vladimir putin and the chinese. i think there are multiple threats. we have to look at the grid that is vulnerable and old. it would only take an explosion of a nuclear weapon in the atmosphere and we do not have the backup systems necessary to protect us. al hunt: lindsey graham says

that he would send 10,000 ground troops to take on isis. does that sound sufficient? too few? what is the carson doctrine? carson doctrine is understanding why we need ground troops. want to establish a caliphate. it requires land. they have acquired half of iraq and one third of syria. they have footholds in other parts of the world. this is a reason why they are victorious and they are able to attract people. we need to stop that perception. in order to stop that, we have to take the land from them. guest: what kind of force would that require? al hunt: i would -- al hunt: what kind of force would that require? guest: i would do that in

consultation with the generals. it is foolish for me to throw it anumber out -- to throw number out. al hunt: some people say we could need more, 50,000. guest: you could. when you take the appropriate leadership role, the coalitions we talk about will begin to come. people like to get on a bandwagon when it is winning. when we are hanging back, they are not going out there. vladimir putin invaded ukraine -- al hunt: if vladimir putin avaded ukraine, what would carson response be? guest: bear in mind that ukraine is a nuclear state and they abandoned the nuclear arsenal

because we said that we would protect them. now, we have had eastern ukraine invaded. have we protected them? no. we will not even give them offensive weapons. i would support them with offensive weapons and other things. al hunt: do you mean american forces? guest: if necessary. we have to be people ever our word. everybody else is looking at what we are doing with israel ukraine. if our friends cannot count on us, how do we develop friends? you get more of what you pay attention to. we pay attention to our enemies and we seem to get more of them. al hunt: you are a man of deep faith and you have then since your teenager. do you believe that god called upon you?

guest: let me put it to you this sought wisdom and i said, lord, if you want me to do this, open the door's. -- doors. i'm not going to push them open. everybody said, "a neophyte with no connection, it is impossible!" and yet, the doors are opening. as long as you open the doors, i will walk through them. if you close them, i will sit down. al hunt: safe travels. thank you for joining us. guest: always wonderful to be with you. al hunt: we will be back in just a moment.

♪

maron ismarc here. his interview with obama gained attention and led to discussions. maron is concluding the third season. characterene, the

encounters problems with the internet company. >> he did not- fix it. >> do you have the repair number. > i do have it>. >> not coming up. i will get someone on the -- i will get a new one. >> a as in apropos. s as in shame. l as in law,. -- as in llama. o as in orifice. >> whatever you are doing is not working. hello, how may i provide excellent service? >> you can fix the internet.

jeff. name is >> really? what is your real name. -- real name? i think we know what is happening. >> would you restart the modem? can i trust you if you are lying about who you are? specialistduling a if it is convenient. jeff. are full of --, le.what a --ho guest: have not seen that in a while. that is funny. al hunt: do you think about that as a journalist?

>> comedy is all i wanted to do and i still feel that i am a standup comic. i know a lot of success and attention came from talking to people. i am still wary of calling myself a journalist because i do not think that i do that. guest: it is not that you do not believe that -- charlie rose: it is not that you don't believe you have those qualities. it is that you believe you are a comedian. guest: it is my understanding you are a journalist. charlie rose: no, i am a comedian. guest: you came up as a journalist and i would be wrong to assume that. you talk about being selfle ss and objective. there are certain tenets of journalism i never learned and never followed. charlie rose: i was not trained

as a journalist's and i know -- as a journalist. a lot of good interviewers are not question and answer people. it is different competency. guest: it was driven by emotional need. nciaterviewed carlos mincee and i did not ask the right questions and he sort of steamrolled me. i had to do a second interview and go back. interrogataa more ive and conscious questioning. charlie rose: driven by curiosity. guest: and also making sure that i talked about the issue. it is rare that there are issues to talk about. charlie rose: the president. that: there were things

had to be addressed and i was not looking for a political interview. i was given the opportunity and the white house reached out. charlie rose: what did they say? guest: they talked to my producer, brandon mcdonald. they said, we are thinking about doing something. it was not clear. you are on the radar and some of us here like the show. i do not know what is going to happen and we are just saying, "hi." it was great that someone listened in the white house. itn, it became clear that was going to happen and i said, i can do this. i was honored. then, it was happening. brendan said that he wanted to come to the garage. i was like, that is ridiculous.

they said that he wanted the experience. i was concerned with connecting with him. i knew that i could not do a softball interview. was orto defined who he is as a person in a genuine way. that is sort of what i ended up doing. it was a little bit trickier. charlie rose: what is the difference between a hardball and softball interview? people use those terms with abandon. click we live in a bait culture. i don't do that. i am respectful. for me, i don't know what hardball is. i know that i have to ask it and it is uncomfortable and how do i engage after that?

charlie rose: what question would you ask the president that was hard all the cousins it might he uncomfortable. hardball because it might be uncomfortable? directlyasked him very in my own sort of framing about what i saw as a problem with politics. i am not a wonky guy. i did politics that was reaction versus research. i said that there was a part of the presidency that was middle-management. there is a corporate occupancy of the government and who does he work for. he got that and did not address it. didink that he got it and

not address where i wanted to go with it. when you have one hour with the guy and you know that he will take some time if he wants to to answer a question, i have to get a lot of stuff in. thed issue with obama is that, i am sitting at home and i read his first book. was an exploration of his identity, racially, and who he is. charlie rose: it was about his father. guest: i get home from hawaii and we had promoted the host. the producer met with the secret service and got that stuff going. and then, the formal thing in charleston happened. so -- the horrible thing in charleston happened. i were sitting there and thought he would have to stay

and deal with this. we accepted that. he is the president. the next morning, they said he was coming. it was not clear if he was coming to my house. i thought it was heavy. then, the white house said he would come. so, we had to address that. wewould be three days before put the interview out and he would be addressing it. it was the right thing to do. charlie rose: of course. guest: i knew that we had to address the supreme court stuff and charleston. he comes into my driveway, which was tented. we had snipers on my neighbor's roof. i had to ask them if we could do that. my neighbor was retired and he

was thrilled. are youlike, " are yo kidding?" secret service for a day! guest: you stay focused. it was solitary. there was no distraction. my garage is cluttered for a reason. there were 15-20 secret service people around and all i could think about was that i had to connect with barack obama. up, i could tell that there were a lot of people coming up the driveway and you see the president go, "hey, mark." ispats me on the back and like, we are going to have a good time, right? i am like, i don't know.

some bad things happened in the last couple of days. he was prepared to have a lighthearted and slightly candid conversation. narcissistlled me a because there is artwork of people -- that people have done of me. i brought that up and i am not sure that he knew that we were going to do this. out of that came a focused and -- charlie rose: human response. guest: it was a powerful statement about race and a powerful condemnation of guns and how they are not regulated in this country. he said that the nra has a strong hold on congress that will probably not be shaken. there was real stuff there. you knew exactly

where to go and what to ask him. what is going on in this country? it is one incident after another. its one is atrocious because happened at a place of warship of worshipened -- and it happened with young people losing a life's. -- their lives. does: he said that this not happen in other places. charlie rose: i think you can do this because you are real. it is not like, "i am out to get you." you are out to understand. guest: he said beautiful stuff about fearlessness and interesting stuff about the nature of democracy. was the most

interesting thing about my experience with him. i felt a real person and that he was a thoughtful guy. almost more thoughtful than you would expect. he did not strike me like some presidents where you like, "i would like to have a beer with this guy." obama, "what is this guy thinking about?" he has a lot of things on his mind. he wanted to get people interested in politics. charlie rose: get people interested in my politics. guest: i think he is discouraged with the distance. whether you are on the right or the left, after a first term and into the second term, you detach from the president and he is a guy who makes speeches. the left decided that they were disappointed and the right is the right.

he feels disconnected. ♪ ♪

charlie rose: i think that he thinks about those things more than most and at her than most. -- and better than most. guest: right. charlie rose: he believes in the

dialogue internally, with respect to other countries, all of that. an, he sent people to see if the iranians would want to have a conversation to get somewhere. it got somewhere. he believes in dialogue. why can't we have more dialogue? cannot talk he about certain things because they get so polarized. if we talk about income inequality, people say it is class warfare. it is not class warfare. we need to. -- we are talking about issues that we need to. he reaches out to people like you because -- guest: i'm going to let him talk. charlie rose: and because you are wise enough to let him.

you are not trying to score off of the president. you are trying to get him to think out loud. guest: what he said about the echo chamber and the reason dialogue has diminished is because it becomes about class warfare and there is no dialogue. it was interesting in his use of the n-word to make a point about that and racial relations in the country. he talks about the echo chamber in a diminishing force and it happened exactly with that soundbite. charlie rose: i had thought about that. that was the soundbite. you walked out and you knew what the lede was. guest: that was all they took out of it. not the meat. there has been progress but you

cannot base it on trivial things. you said, all i wanted to do was to connect with the guy and then, as the days go on, "i am talking with the freaking president. "he president was in my house! charlie rose: it is unbelievable -- guest: it is unbelievable. we have secret service. i am waiting and playing guitar and secret service says they will give me a heads up when he is five minutes away. he was going to take a -- the carpool, what is it called? all the cars. yeah. so, the motorcade. thank god! he is going to take the motorcade from beverly hills and

fly to pasadena, park in the rose bowl parking lot. they were going to give me the heads up. we had five sets of headphones running into the garage and outside. we are standing on the deck and y and thehe ospre secret service guy is like, "he is coming." that is his vehicle. it was pretty exciting. the neighborhood was quiet. parked.s not a car people had lined the street under a weird tent. charlie rose: what is the aftermath? do you hear from the president. guest: we talk every day. charlie rose: he had john stewart to the white house.

guest: i wish i could tell you that he texts me. already!", "enough charlie rose " his relationship -- cup.ft his to-go this is the fundamental difference between me and jon. he has an outlet that is constantly in the dialogue and that relationship with the president. and i ameaves a cup like, how do i frame this? i have a glass dome with the president's cup. charlie rose: you can look at it

and not touch it. guest: that is what i got. it is a profound honor to sit with a sitting president. there was no restrictions on me. there was no pre-interview or management. charlie rose: you had time. i did 45 minutes with him and they called and said, what are you doing on sunday? he could only do 45 minutes because he was flying off to a recital. the point is, that is a lengthy interview for this president. it is those times that you really hope you can get to see the guy. charlie rose: did you feel like you did -- guest: did you feel like you did? charlie rose: i did. guest: when you have been doing this long enough, it is like, "was that really him?"

he put himself at ease. he planted himself inside of the environment. he commented on it. and then, it was like, ok, he is in the room. charlie rose: where does it go from here? is, afterre it goes all is said and done, i do a specific type of show and i get business. one person asked me this question as a journalist and i wish that i could remember his name. he said, do you interview candidates now? i interviewed the president. i'm not going to talk to candidates. charlie rose: if they get elected, they can call me. guest: that's right. or, if they were once president. charlie rose: i mean, tell me more about where you take they

givend what makes them people who might not have had access to the mainstream a chance to be part of the national dialogue, so much so that the president wants to talk to you. is it the freedom to be your own boss? podcast was born out of desperation. i was doing radio and comedy and it was not happening. the medium existed and it was not popular. it had been around for a wild. i asked the guy who produced my radio if we could figure out how to do this and he said, "sure." it monday and thursday. he had done some radio and i had done a little stop we knew that we needed to have the regularity. ultimately that what

happened over interviews was -- who knows what makes someone compelling in that format? anyone can do radio. why does it take off? guests, the way i did it, and the medium was growing well i was in it. i helped the medium and it became visible because of the guests that i had and the way that i was doing it. what is happening, in terms of a paradigm shifting from terrestrial radio and more people seeking this out to listen on your own time schedule and build a relationship with these talents who are in this -- like anything else, there are thousands of people doing this. who is going to transcend? i don't know. if. it is an open marketplace -- it is an open marketplace. you hearose: when

it, you know there is an x f actor. guest: i'm glad i have it. i do not know what it is. charlie rose: you are who you are. guest: i do speaking now and you want to be encouraging and preface it with, "that is not going to work out." it is a mix of desperation and talent and skill. charlie rose: the other thing about it is that everybody in "i would likeks, to do that and i could do it well." i can talk. mike, i am me the ic, i amgo -- the m

o!ady to g charlie rose: and then, seven minutes in -- interview where he was waiting for questions. it was harry dean stanton. he did not know me or the show. i had watched a documentary on him. actor. rose: great guest: he had been through a lot of hollywood history. they could barely get him to talk. the arrogance of me, i was like, "i will get him." it was tough. he was doing a crossword and smoking. charlie rose: did he know it was

tough? guest: i made the mistake where i felt that i had to somehow explain myself. i had a hard time and did not get through. -- get through. i did it and included the filmmaker of the documentary on the broadcast. people said to me that he sounds like a grandpa. what did you expect from him? charlie rose: i don't think clint eastwood would be different. guest: he isn't interesting and mysterious guy. interesting and mysterious guy. he said that he did not remember movies he was in. charlie rose: when he was at this table, he was smoking. guest: how did you do?

charlie rose: i don't remember it being desperate. guest: better than may. -- me. charlie rose: thanks for joining us. see you next time.

♪ shery: u.s. stocks decline as apple falls for the 10th time in 11 days. oil rebounds. japan fall the most since 2009. domestic consumption has fallen in 14 of the last 15 months. the downer for disney -- shares falling as quarterly sales miss estimates. blame paris and the weak euro. welcome to first up. coming to you live from