InsideSources

The Carson campaign sent out word Tuesday afternoon that the doctor is calling for a private meeting of the five remaining GOP presidential candidates before Thursday night’s debate in Detroit to discuss striking a more civil tone.

Here’s the release:

Dr. Ben Carson Calls for a Meeting of all Five GOP Presidential                                     Candidates Prior to the Upcoming Debate in Detroit

Alexandria, Virginia, — March 1, 2016 – Concerned with the lack of civility currently being displayed in the race for the GOP presidential nomination, Dr. Ben Carson is personally calling for a private meeting of all of the candidates in Detroit, Michigan before the FOX News GOP debate scheduled this Thursday, March 3, 2016.

“The American People deserve so much more from the candidates who are seeking the most powerful position in the free world, and I share their concern that this race has taken a turn for the worse, to the point of embarrassment on the world stage,” said Dr. Carson. “A house divided cannot stand, and it is imperative the Republican Party exhibit unity by the candidates coming together with a pledge to talk about the many serious problems facing our country, instead of personally attacking each other.”

“If we are to defeat our democratic opponent in the general election this November, we must reach an agreement together each other that we will not succumb to the media’s desire for a fight on the stage in Detroit,” Dr. Carson added. “I am confident that the five remaining candidates can rise above the sophomoric attacks of past encounters and have a serious discussion about substantive issues and how we will lead our nation forward toward a more prosperous and secure future. America’s children and grandchildren are depending on us to fight for them and future generations, not fight each other.”

Today, Dr. Carson began reaching out to each candidate personally by phone in the hopes that this meeting can occur in the hours before the debate later this week.

Carson’s entreaty comes as mocking insults among the Republican front-runners Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio have devolved on the campaign trail to a level rarely if ever seen in a presidential race.

Trump at one point this week staggered about behind a lectern splashing water from a plastic bottle in what was apparently an exaggerated physical satire of one of the seminal moments from Rubio’s political career.

The Florida senator, meanwhile, seems to have decided to match the front-runner insult for insult, making jokes on the trail about Trump urinating on himself.

The British may not appreciate or understand Donald Trump’s brand of politics, but as of Thursday, they think he’s a good bet to win the Republican nomination. That’s the message, at least, from the United Kingdom’s biggest bookmaker.

Just days after the British Parliament ducked a controversial vote to ban the New York billionaire from the United Kingdom, London-based William Hill on Thursday made Trump its favorite in the GOP race, setting the New York billionaire’s odds at 5 to 4 – up from 33-to-1 longshot odds offered when the campaign began.

The gambling site still has Hillary Clinton as an overwhelming 8-to-11 favorite to win the election next fall.

In the odds to win the presidency, Trump follows in a fairly distant second at 10 to 3, Bernie Sanders and Marco Rubio come in at 6 to 1, Ted Cruz, despite his recent surge in Iowa is at 16 to 1 and Jeb Bush is given a 22-to-1 shot.

Trump’s also running second on the Irish betting site PaddyPower, where Clinton is at 5 to 6, Trump is at 7 to 2 (interestingly, the Irish seem to think there’s a scenario for Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who at 100 to 1 is given better odds than Democratic contender Martin O’Malley, a 150-to-1 longshot who is actually in the race).

The unexpected rise of Trump has been costly for William Hill, according to a spokesman.

“The run of cash for Donald Trump has been astonishing. He is a six-figure loser for us and by far our worst result,” said William Hill’s Rupert Adams.

Unlike Las Vegas, which does not take bets on the American presidential election, the British bookmaking operation offers gamblers some intriguing opportunities for 2016 – and beyond.

Former GOP standard-bearer Mitt Romney, who lost in 2012 and has repeatedly insisted he is not interested in the 2016 race, still gets 80-to-1 odds of winning the Republican nomination. That’s significantly better than the 100-to-1 shot the bookmaker is giving Ben Carson, the former neurosurgeon and tea party favorite who just weeks ago sat atop the GOP field alongside Trump.

Could Trump’s unprecedented success be fueling interest in future presidential runs by other celebrities?

William Hill is also offering gamblers 100 to 1 odds on actor George Clooney, 200 to 1 on rapper Kanye West and 250 to 1 on actor Will Smith becoming president during their lifetimes.

There are odds on President Lady Gaga, too. 500 to 1.

During Tuesday night’s Republican debate, Donald Trump and the other GOP presidential contenders mostly avoided Ben Carson’s fracas last week with the campaign press. But by Wednesday evening, Trump was again needling his rival front-runner — and even defending the intense press scrutiny of the former neurosurgeon’s biography.

In an interview with conservative radio host Mark Levin, Trump was challenged over his repeated citations of reporting from Politico and other news organizations that questioned whether Carson inflated or manufactured elements of his life story.

After the Carson campaign contested elements of the original story, Politico changed the headline and affixed an editor’s note to the piece stating the news organization “stands by its reporting.” Still the piece has been harshly criticized on the right.

Trump, who has had his own repeated run-ins with the press, defended Politico.

“They’re really using stuff that he said, though, you know, in all fairness to … Politico,” Trump said, referring to reporting that has focused on Carson’s 1990 autobiography, “Gifted Hands,” and on statements Carson has made in public forums over the course of a long medical career.

“Ben was talking about, I guess he wrote a book — probably before he thought he was going to run for office, to be honest with you,” Trump said. “He talked about … wanting to hit his mother over the head with a hammer. You know, I never had those thoughts, in all fairness. And neither did you. And, you know, other things. Hitting a friend, his best friend in the face with a padlock. That’s pretty bad.”

Asked if he thought Carson was “mentally off,” Trump said, “I hope not. I don’t know.”

Trump said he gets along with most of the GOP field, including Carson.

“First of all, I like him. You know I was with him last night. I’m standing next to him last night. I’m friendly with all of these guys,” Trump said. “There’s a couple of them I don’t like very much to be honest with you.”

Carson accused the press of lying after Politico and other news organizations questioned the 64-year-old retired neurosurgeon’s repeated use of the word “scholarship” to describe overtures from military officials who encouraged him, as a promising young Detroit high school student, to consider attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Carson also pushed back against CNN and the Wall Street Journal, which ran additional stories challenging details in the candidate’s 1990 autobiography. 

With about 25 percent each, Carson and Trump are running neck and neck in the latest Real Clear Politics composite of national polls in the GOP presidential race.

While Ben Carson came out on top of Sunday’s Republican presidential straw poll hosted by the Western Conservative Summit in Denver, 2016 underdog Carly Fiorina was the surprise upset of the weekend conference, where the former Hewlett-Packard CEO came in second ahead of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

Fiorina finished with 201 votes, or 23 percent of the total 871 votes cast, second only to Carson with 224 votes — 26 percent of the total.

The upset came as major surprise in the lineup of high-profile 2016 candidates including Walker, who was in attendance and finished in third with 192 votes. Cruz, whose father Rafael Cruz gave a speech in support of his son at the conference, came away with 100 votes, Paul with 34, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio with 24 and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry with 20.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush earned just two votes, finishing 13th behind former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Donald Trump, Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Past presidential candidates Huckabee, Perry and Santorum were also present — a historical prerequisite for winning the sixth annual poll — further bolstering Fiorina’s surprise victory.

The former HP CEO came into the weekend conference largely unknown, but shook up attendees with a Saturday morning speech that included quips about the criticisms of a female president, her views on national security, and a jab at Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

Fiorina told the crowd she was recently asked whether she thought hormones would affect a woman’s ability to serve as president.

“Ladies, here’s a little test — can any of you think of a single instance in which a man’s judgment might have been clouded by his hormones?” Fiorina joked. “Any at all? Including in the Oval Office?”

“Hillary Clinton must not be president of these United States, but not because she’s a woman,” Fiorina continued. “Hillary Clinton must not be president of these United States because she lacks a track record of leadership, because she is not transparent, and because her policies are bad for the people of this nation.”

Fiorina said technology was the key to getting voters reengaged in the political process and breaking up the entrenched “professional political class” that has dominated Washington on both sides of the aisle for decades.

“I would go into the Oval Office on a regular basis in those weekly radio addresses or in those Oval Office addresses and I would would ask every person in American, ‘Take out your smartphone please, let me ask you a few questions,’ Fiorina said. “Do you believe that we actually should know how your money is being spent? Do you believe that we should ask every single government agency to justify every single dollar spent every single year? Press one for yes, two for no.”

Since announcing her campaign earlier this year, Fiorina has touted her Silicon Valley experience and tenure as the CEO of HP as one of her standout qualifications for the job, especially in light of the recent technology issues plaguing national security.

“This has to be a central part of any homeland security strategy,” Fiorina recently told Bloomberg about the massive hack executed against the White House Office of Personnel Management, which compromised the personal information of millions of current, former and prospective federal employees, contractors and security clearance wielders. “The Chinese have had a long-term effort to hack into our databases and systems, which suggests that we should have been on guard for a very long time.”

“You have to have a consolidated command that has the accountability, the responsibility, for protecting the security of all government systems and databases,” Fiorina said. “You can’t have this piece-mealed throughout government.”

Fiorina’s opinion mirrored that of congressional leaders in recent weeks calling for OPM Director Katherine Archuleta’s resignation, many of whom allege she isn’t qualified to safeguard the data of millions of federal employees.

“You have to have exceedingly competent people who are there because of their particular expertise, not simply there because they’ve been in government long enough to get there,” Fiorina said. “Not everybody has the skills to do this work.”

“We now know that the inspector general of OPM, Office of Personnel Management, told the director several months ago you have two systems that are highly vulnerable, you need to take them down,” Fiorina said during a recent radio interview.

“They refused to accept that recommendation. So yet again, this is a self-inflicted wound. We need not bureaucracy to deal with this. We need a concerted, consolidated command within the federal government that is focused solely on this, has responsibility and authority across the federal government, reports to the White House or to the Department of Defense or Department of National Intelligence — somewhere where it’s taken seriously.”

Fiorina echoed those sentiments in Saturday’s speech.

“Technology is a tool, but it is also a weapon that can be used against us.”

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