Another Carson debate claim: 'Outside of Anbar in Iraq, there's a big energy field. Take that from them....We could do that, I believe, fairly easily'

Obama's spokesman said he was 'speechless' today when presented with Carson's latest claim

At a campaign stop today, the Republican claimed he has evidence - and he's going to give it to the president soon

Syria; the White House said yesterday it has no knowledge of that

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson says he has proof that China is involved in Syria and has promised to share his intel with the White House.

According to the Associated Press, Carson said at at South Carolina stop today that he plans to present his evidence to President Barack Obama over the weekend.

I'm 'surprised my sources are better than theirs,' Carson reportedly said.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest found himself 'speechless' today when asked about Carson's latest assertion.

'Maybe it violates my job description as a spokesperson to be speechless, but uh, I think in this case I am,' he said.

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Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson says he has proof that China is involved in Syria and has promised to share his intel with the White House. He first made the claim during Tuesday's presidential debate - now he says he can back it up

President Barack Obama separately laughed off in an interview Ben Carson's suggestion at the most recent presidential debate that ISIS could be defeated 'fairly easily' if the U.S. targeted and destroyed the oil fields it controls

'Outside of Anbar in Iraq, there's a big energy field. Take that from them. Take all of that land from them. We could do that, I believe, fairly easily, I've learned from talking to several generals, and then you move on from there,' Carson said at Tuesday evening's debate

Carson first made the claim at the Republican presidential debate on Tuesday evening in Milwaukee.

Responding to a question about the president's strategy in Syria, and his decision to send in 50 special forces to train regional forces fighting against ISIS, Carson said as part of his answer, 'We also must recognize that it's a very complex place.

'You know, the Chinese are there, as well as the Russians, and you have all kinds of factions there.'

At a briefing with reporters at the White house on Thursday, National Security Adviser Susan Rice, said, 'I'm not sure what he was referring to.'

'I have not seen any evidence of Chinese military involvement in Syria.'

Also present was Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, who jumped in and said, 'China makes it a practice to not get extended into military conflicts in the Middle East.'

And, historically, the country has tried 'not be overextended in military exercises,' he contended.

Carson's statement today adds a new layer to the emerging tiff with the White House over the president's policy toward Syria.

In an interview that aired this morning on ABC News Obama laughed off Carson's suggestion at the debate that ISIS could be defeated 'fairly easily' if the U.S. targeted and destroyed the oil fields it controls.

'What I think is that he doesn't know much about it,' Obama told ABC's George Stephanopoulos during a clip of their sit down that aired on Good Morning America.

Obama noted that as the nation's Commander-in-Chief he has access 'to all the best military minds in the country and all the best foreign policy minds in the country.'

'And I'm not running for office. And so my only interest is in success,' he said.

Obama was responding to a separate claim Carson made during his answer to the Syria questions at the GOP debate.

Both leading Republican presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Carson, have contended that the United States ought to strike ISIS-controlled oil fields in Iraq to cut off the head of the enemy.

Trump said last night at a rally that he would 'bomb the s***' out of ISIS.

'I would just bomb those suckers,' he said. 'I'd blow up the pipes, I'd blow up the [refineries] I'd blow up every single single inch, there would be nothing left.'

'And I'd take the oil.'

At the debate in Milwaukee, Carson said, 'We have to be saying, how do we make them look like losers? Because that's the way that they're able to gather a lot of influence.'

Continuing, he said, 'I think in order to make them look like losers, we have to destroy their caliphate. And you look for the easiest place to do that? It would be in Iraq.'

'Outside of Anbar in Iraq, there's a big energy field. Take that from them. Take all of that land from them. We could do that, I believe, fairly easily, I've learned from talking to several generals, and then you move on from there,' Carson said.

In conclusion, 'You have to continue to face them, because our goal is not to contain them, but to destroy them before they destroy us,' he said.

President Obama contended in the interview with Stephanopoulos that containment is only the first step in the process. He said the U.S. wants to 'completely decapitate' ISIS' operation - but the coalition isn't there yet.

'I don't think they're gaining strength,' Obama said of the terrorist group. 'From the start our goal has been first to contain, and we have contained them. They have not gained ground in Iraq.'

In Syria, he said, 'they'll come in, they'll leave. But you don't see this systematic march by ISIL across the terrain.'

'What I think is that he doesn't know much about it,' Obama told ABC's George Stephanopoulos during a clip of their sit down that aired on Good Morning America

'What we have not yet been able to do is to completely decapitate their command and control structures. We've made some progress in trying to reduce the flow of foreign fighters,' he said of the group, which the U.S. government refers to by its alternative name, ISIL.

The U.S. is now looking to recruit more Sunni fighters in Iraq 'to really go on offense rather than simply engage in defense,' he said.

Syria is another story entirely, the president stated, because of the political problems caused by President Bashar al-Assad.

'Until Assad is no longer a lightning rod for Sunnis in Syria and that entire region is no longer a proxy war for Shia-Sunni conflict, we're going to continue to have problems,' Obama said in the interview, conducted yesterday from the White House.

Expounding, he said, 'I would distinguish between making sure that the place is perfect -- that's not going to happen anytime soon - with making sure that ISIL continues to shrink in its scope of operations until it no longer poses the kind of threat that it does.'

The full interview with Obama airs Sunday morning on This Week.

In another section that aired on ABC early, Obama elbowed Trump over his proposal to deport the roughly 11 million illegal immigrants currently residing in the country.

'I have no idea where Mr. Trump thinks the money's gonna come from,' the president said. 'It would cost us hundreds of billions of dollars to execute that.'

And he said, optically speaking, it would not behoove the United States to round up and ship millions of people out of the country.