Ben Carson Endorses Donald Trump for President, Calls Him "Very Intelligent" and "Cerebral"

"I want the voice of the people to be heard," Carson said on Friday. "I want the political process to play out in the way that it should play out."

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Former Republican presidential candidateBen Carson formally endorsed Donald Trump on Friday, urging his fellow Republicans to unite behind him. Though the two have previously exchanged harsh words on the campaign trail, Carson insisted that any such hatchet has since been buried in an attempt to take on leading Democratic candidateHillary Clinton.

"[Trump’s] actually a very intelligent man who cares deeply about America," Carson said during a press conference from Palm Beach, perhaps briefly rendered completely unaware of what exactly Trump represents. "There’s two different Donald Trumps. There’s the one you see on stage and then the one that’s very cerebral, sits there and considers things very carefully." Of course, this "two Donald Trumps" theory may come as a surprise to anyone imaging how one might possibly "consider things very carefully" before landing on the sort of rhetoric with which Trump has now become synonymous.

Adding that his endorsement was "about America," Carson commended his former rival’s rise and expressed his desire for fellow Republicans to ignore the propositions of Mitt Romney and others, who have called for a plan to strategically divide the delegate count ahead of the GOP convention in July. "I want the voice of the people to be heard," Carson said sleepily, as quoted by CNN. "I want the political process to play out in the way that it should play out."

Carson and Trump actually have quite a bit in common. Following Trump's repeated insistence that Muslims be banned from entering the United States, Carson took that xenophobia one step further during a Meet the Press appearance in September. "I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation," Carson said. "I absolutely would not agree with that." Last month, Carson noted that he would definitely consider a spot in Trump's theoretical White House as vice president.

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