What's the difference between the United States and Cuba? According to GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson, it's Fox News.
"Even if all the media tries to shut you down -- which they have tried very much to do with me, but they can't because the good Lord has provided me with mechanisms like my syndicated column and like Fox News," Carson said last year. "We'd be Cuba if there were no Fox News, I ought to tell you."
The audience applauded the line about Fox News.
At the time, Carson was a paid contributor to the network.
The remarks from Oct. 19, 2014, at an event at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library were little noticed at the time, but resurfaced this week after being posted online by Mother Jones and Media Matters.
Carson also joked that many Americans "stupid" while speaking of an unnamed "they" who have infiltrated schools and the media:
"They can twist and turn things as much as they want. But what they don't understand, and they miscalculated, they were doing a great job in terms of fundamentally changing this nation. In terms of infiltrating the school systems, in terms of infiltrating the media. All of this -- they've done a great job. Everything was perfect. Except they underestimated the intelligence of the American people. The people are not as stupid as they think they are. Many of them are stupid. Okay. But I'm talking about overall."
The audience laughed, as did Carson.
The remarks are just a few in a string of eyebrow-raising comments from Carson. On Thursday, he said transgender people make "everybody else uncomfortable" in public restrooms and suggested a separate one for them.
Also this week, comments from 1998 resurfaced in which he said the pyramids in Egypt were built by the biblical figure Joseph to store grain, and not by the ancient Egyptian as tombs for the pharaohs.
On Wednesday, he defended those comments.
"It's still my belief, yes," he told CBS News.
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