Ben Carson would consider supporting Kanye West for president

Kanye West
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Rapper and prospective 2020 presidential contender Kanye West praised Ben Carson in a Vanity Fair interview Thursday, calling the 2016 Republican candidate a "brilliant guy."

Carson returned the favor Sunday in an interview with Martha Raddatz on ABC's This Week. He said he's chatted with Kanye over the phone, and complimented the artist's business knowledge.

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"I talked to him about the possibility of maybe himself and some of the other people in pop culture doing some music that might be uplifting, that might give young women a sense of their value and young men a sense of responsibility," he said. "I think it could be a tremendous thing in our society."

The retired neurosurgeon, who came under fire recently for saying he would not support a Muslim president, acknowledged he would consider supporting a rapper president.

"Well, I am certainly willing to give [Kanye] a chance," Carson said. "He'll be able to explain things and see if he resonates with the people."

Watch Carson's full interview here.

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.