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The one-time presidential candidate and famed neurosurgeon let the cat out of the bag…

Dr. Ben Carson, who is helping Donald Trump select a vice presidential candidate, said Thursday that it could be a Democrat.

When Carson was asked whether the presumptive Republican presidential nominee would consider either an independent or a Democrat as a running mate, the retired physician answered “Yes,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

“We would consider people who are Americans and who put America first,” he added.

A Carson spokesman later said that the possibility that a Democrat would be chosen as a vice presidential candidate was pretty remote.

Carson “fully expects Mr. Trump to choose a Republican as his running mate.”

He also took himself out of the picture for the vice presidential spot.

“I’m not interested in doing that for a number of reasons,” he said. “I don’t want to be a distraction.”

The Wall Street Journal reported:

For Mr. Trump, his running-mate choice could be the most important signal that he is seeking to unify the GOP. House Speaker Paul Ryan raised the stakes on the process Thursday when he said he’s “not ready” to support Mr. Trump until he’s seen more evidence of his fealty to conservative doctrine. “I’m not there right now,” he said. Mr. Trump quickly shot back with a statement that he doesn’t support Mr. Ryan’s agenda, either.

The possibility that Trump could choose a Democrat as his running mate was advanced by Fox News digital politics editor Chris Stirewalt Wednesday on “Kilmeade and Friends.”

“Donald Trump’s answer is to go left, stick with the points he made in his speech,” he told host Brian Kilmeade at about the 9:25 mark. “I would say that the correct running mate for Donald Trump, and I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, is Jim Webb. Military experience. Democrat. Bi-partisan.”

Webb was a former Democratic presidential contender who later said he couldn’t support Hillary Clinton as a candidate.

“I would not vote for Hillary Clinton,” Jim Webb said on MSBNC’s “Morning Joe.”

But he left the possibility of supporting Trump.

“I’m not sure yet. I don’t know who I’m going to vote for,” he said.

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Watch the clip, via Fox News Radio.