RUSH: To the audio sound bites. Dr. Benjamin Carson was back on Fox News this morning, and they asked him to react to a couple things that I said about him on this program yesterday. He was on with Steve Doocy and Alisyn Camerota. In the first bite, in fact, the whole interview was getting his reaction to things I said. Here’s the first example of it.

DOOCY: Rush Limbaugh said that right now, Dr. Carson, you’ve got Democrats terrified. Here is a little of Rush.

RUSH ARCHIVE: I think Dr. Benjamin Carson probably got everybody in the Democrat party scared to death. It’s going to be really hard to demonize this guy, really, really hard, partially because of his race, but not just because he’s African-American. It’s because you can call this guy all kinds of demonic names, he just doesn’t fit the bill.

DOOCY: Well, Dr. Carson, is Rush right?

RUSH: And here’s what Dr. Carson said.

CARSON: Well, I certainly hope so. I’ve tried to lead the right kind of life, a life that is inspired by my love of God and my love of my fellow man. And it is a very difficult to demonize someone under those circumstances. But I don’t think it’s just Democrats, you know. Republicans have been involved, too, in deceit and in trying to rule by fear. I think any politician who is doing that, I’m very happy to expose them and to more importantly, I think we need to offer solutions for the problems, not just complain.

RUSH: Now, this is the second time that Dr. Carson has explicitly distanced himself from the Republican Party. On CNN following CPAC, he said… if I’m not mistaken — and I’m not being critical here — nobody have a cow. He said he was an independent, not a Republican. Distancing himself. Now this sound bite: “But I don’t think it’s just Democrats that demonize people. Republicans have been involved, too, in deceit, in trying to rule by fear. And I think any politician is doing that…” This is very interesting to me, very interesting what Dr. Carson is doing here. Not a Republican, and pretty much out of the blue, I mean, up until the CNN interview post-CPAC, I don’t think there was any doubt, was there?

Let’s contrast this with the titular head of the Republican Party, Colonel Colin Powell, or Colin Colonel Powell, whatever it is. Back in the nineties, his approval numbers, when you asked people, he was chairman Joint Chiefs and Reagan had made him that, and he was thinking about running for office but nobody knew what party he was in, and he wouldn’t say. He wouldn’t say what party he was a member, and he wouldn’t take a position on any issue. They’d ask him, pro-life? (muttering) They’d ask him about any issue and he would avoid it. I think his approval numbers were in the eighties. And I remember, he was being touted by the Republicans as a presidential candidate in waiting, but he won’t identify what party. He eventually did come out as a Republican and has been one ever since, except he endorses Democrats now.

Dr. Carson, I don’t think anybody doubted, from the moment everybody first became aware of him. A lot of people have known about him for a long time, but at the prayer breakfast this year, when he took it straight to Obama on Obamacare and a number of other things, I don’t think anybody doubted that he’s a conservative and a Republican. All through subsequent TV appearances, I don’t think there’s any doubt about it, and then through CPAC there wasn’t any doubt about it. Then the CNN interview after CPAC he says he’s not a Republican, he’s independent or — I think he said that. And now this. So I interpret this as he is preparing for a possibility to seek high office. And he doesn’t want to be tied to any particular party or ideology per se right now. It’s a good indication here of what’s going on. And, no, I’m not being critical of it. I just find it interesting.

(interruption)

Well, I think it’s fair to say he leans right. Yeah. He’s about to fall over, he’s leaning so far, but he doesn’t want to say so, is the key. Remember, people love conservative ideas until they find out Republicans hold them. That was TheHill.com poll we talked about yesterday. You put a list of ideas and solutions in front of people that are conservative, and they eat ’em up, they love ’em, support it, 55 to 31%, issue after issue after issue. Then you tell ’em, “Oh, those are Republican ideas.” Forget that. So he’s trying to avoid any kind of label whatsoever. Alisyn Camerota asked him the next question.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Carson, Rush Limbaugh also went on to say something else about you. He said, “Dr. Carson is able to articulate and explain conservatism in a way that is persuasive without raising his voice at all.” Do you ever raise your voice?

CARSON: That probably comes from my training as a neurosurgeon. Neurosurgeons tend to be very calm under fire. They have to be because you deal with some pretty stressful situations.

RUSH: Dr. Benjamin Carson asked on Fox News today to respond to things that I said about him yesterday.