Ben Carson has officially suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination for the 2016 presidential election.
Speaking to conservative activists, Ben Carson, 64, said: “I’m leaving the campaign trail.”
Dr. Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, had been a front-runner but his campaign stalled in recent months after he performed badly on foreign affairs and questions about his background story.
He has not said which of the remaining four candidates he plans to endorse in the race for the Republican nomination.
“There are a lot of people who love me, they just won’t vote for me,” he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington DC.
After receiving a standing ovation from the crowd, Ben Carson said he would still be “heavily involved in trying to save the nation”.
Ben Carson’s announcement was expected after he said earlier this week that he did not see a “political path forward” in his campaign for the nomination.
He had earned only eight delegates before his decision to drop out from the nomination race.
Republicans in four states – Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Maine – go to the polls on Saturday.
On March 4, Ben Carson was announced as a new chairman of My Faith Votes – a group set up to encourage Christians to vote in elections.
Ben Carson had a poor upbringing in Detroit but made it to Yale before a brilliant medical career.
Ben Carson has admitted that he never applied to join the West Point, despite implications in his book that he had.
The Republican presidential hopeful wrote in his 1996 autobiography, Gifted Hands, that he had been offered a full scholarship by the military academy.
However, West Point said it had no record of an application from Ben Carson.
Dr. Ben Carson’s campaign team has denied that he lied about West Point, saying the academy effectively offered him a place.
In his book, Ben Carson recalls a meeting in 1969 when he was a high school student in Detroit enrolled in the ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) program, which provides preliminary officer training for students.
Photo MSNBC
Then 17 years old, Ben Carson dined with the decorated general, William Westmoreland, and says in his book that a “full scholarship” was subsequently offered.
However, the presidential hopeful’s campaign team on November 6, after inquiries by Politico, said he never applied to join West Point and the scholarship assertion was based on “conversations” he had.
“His senior commander was in touch with West Point and told Dr. Carson he could get in, Dr Carson did not seek admission,” campaign spokesman Doug Watts told Reuters in an email.
The confusion comes as other parts of Ben Carson’s personal story related in his book have also been questioned.
He has stood by his assertion in the autobiography that in his youth he was prone to sudden violent rages that he has overcome as an adult.
In one episode, he lunged with a knife at a close friend but fortunately struck his friend’s belt buckle.
The retired neurosurgeon has made much of his struggling childhood while on the campaign trail.
Ben Carson is the joint frontrunner in the Republican presidential race with Donald Trump, who wasted no time in capitalizing on the latest story.
Donald Trump tweeted: “Wow, one of many lies by Ben Carson! Big story.”
Ben Carson has knocked Donald Trump off top spot in the Republican presidential campaign.
The retired neurosurgeon takes a narrow lead in a New York Times/CBS News poll, ousting Donald Trump who has led the pack for nearly four months.
The news comes on the eve of the third TV debate for Republican contenders.
The next-ranked candidates are Marco Rubio (8%), Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina (7% each) but they are a long way behind.
Conservative Ben Carson, who has expressed extreme views on a range of issues, has 26% of Republican primary voter support, according to the telephone poll of 575 voters.
The 64-year-old lead of 4% over Donald Trump is well within the 6% margin of error.
Photo Getty Images
Florida Senator Marco Rubio has 8% support and the rest closely follow behind him.
Donald Trump has turned his fire to Ben Carson in recent days, attacking him as “low energy” and questioning his Seventh Day Adventist faith.
The two will meet on the stage at Boulder, Colorado, at the Republican debate on October 28.
Primary voting begins in February in Iowa, where Ben Carson also leads the polls.
Ben Carson was criticized this week for comparing abortion to slavery.
The retired doctor has said President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform was “the worst thing” since slavery and that the US government is acting like Nazi Germany.
He also asserted that being gay is a choice, Muslims aren’t qualified to seek the US presidency, the Holocaust could have been prevented if persecuted Europeans owned more guns and – just a few days ago – that the US government should cut off funding to universities that are found to exhibit “extreme political bias”.
Ben Carson’s comments on abortion have set off yet another cycle of outrage from the left – a reaction that he will likely wear as a badge of honor.
Muslim-American groups and others are calling for Ben Carson to quit the 2016 race after the Republican presidential hopeful said a Muslim should not be president.
The groups have said these views make him unqualified to run himself.
Dr. Ben Carson, a Christian, made the comments on September 20, adding that Islam was inconsistent with the Constitution.
Another Republican presidential candidate, Bobby Jindal, said on September 21 a Muslim president should swear on a Bible to uphold the Constitution.
Bobby Jindal said a Muslim Republican who fought to protect religious liberty, respected the Judeo-Christian heritage of the US and was committed to destroying Islamic State and radical Islam, and condemned cultures that treated women as second class citizens would get his vote.
But they must “place their hand on the Bible and swear to uphold the Constitution”, he added.
Photo Flickr
The Republican candidates for president are being asked about their views on Islam since Donald Trump failed last week to correct a supporter who said President Barack Obama was a Muslim.
Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner, has since said he would have no problem appointing a Muslim to his cabinet.
In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Ben Carson said the president’s faith matters if it differs with the values of America.
“I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation,” he said.
Ben Carson elaborated later when he told The Hill: “Muslims feel that their religion is very much a part of your public life and what you do as a public official, and that’s inconsistent with our principles and our Constitution.”
Democrats immediately denounced his remarks and Muslim groups called on Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon who is riding high in the polls among Republican voters, to quit the race.
“To me this really means he is not qualified to be president of the United States,” said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
Ibrahim Hooper noted that the US Constitution specifically does not require the president to have a certain religion.
Farhana Khera of Muslim Advocates said the “religious bigotry” was heard when JFK was hoping to be the first Catholic president.
Haroon Moghul, a leading commentator on Islam, told CNN: “I think Carson’s comments mean he should get out of the race.”
One of the latest polls, run by CNN/ORC, shows Ben Carson has slipped into third place in the Republican race, trailing former Hewlett-Packard chief Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump, who has consistently remained ahead of the pack.
Senior Republicans had said after the 2012 election that if the party did not become more inclusive, it would continue to push away young voters.
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