Ben Carson greets fair goers Sunday at Iowa State Fair. | M.Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO Carson suggests Obama is 'anti-Semitic' with Iran deal

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson says he believes some of President Barack Obama’s actions are anti-semitic.

“I think anything is anti-Semitic if it’s against the survival of a state that is surrounded by enemies and by people who want to destroy them and to sort of ignore that and to act like everything is normal there and that these people are paranoid is anti-Semitic,” Carson said on “Fox News Sunday.”


Carson did not specifically mention the Iran nuclear agreement, but said during a recent visit to Israel he could not find a single person who “didn’t think this administration has turned its back on Israel.”

The retired neurosurgeon, who did his interview Sunday from the Iowa State Fair, where he’s been campaigning, is now second nationally in the crowded field of 17 GOP presidential contenders in a new Fox News poll, with Donald Trump still at the top.

And Carson said he hopes his rising poll numbers will allow him more opportunities to talk about tax and foreign policy issues, rather than solely answer questions about race and health care.

“I want more people to talk to me about the economy and foreign affairs. I tend to get a lot of questions about race and about medicine,” he said.