Ben Carson Renews Call to Expand Domestic Surveillance: 'In the Larger Capacity, We Should Monitor Anything

Republican White House hopeful Ben Carson said Sunday that he is open to surveilling any area that could be responsible for radicalizing terrorists.

"In the larger capacity, we should monitor anything – mosques, church, school, you know, shopping centers – where there is a lot of radicalization going on," Carson told ABC "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos.

In order to deal with the complete threat posed by radicalism, Carson said that intelligence efforts must be enhanced.

"You know, for instance, we’ve learned last week that the FBI seems to be only to be able to monitor 30 to 60 people at a time," he said. "And we know there’s a lot more than that that need to be monitored."

"We need to get very serious about our monitoring," the Republican presidential candidate added.

When questioned by Stephanopoulos about his lack of foreign policy experience, Carson said that realities of the job of president are not necessarily defined by politics but instead by real-world experience.

[sharequote align="center"]"We need to get very serious about our monitoring"[/sharequote]

"I don’t know that it necessarily comes down to politics, it comes down to practical experience solving difficult problems, doing things quickly and efficiently, and using the resources available to you to get that done," he concluded.

Fellow Republican candidate Rand Paul responded to calls for increased surveillance during Sunday's "Face the Nation" on CBS, telling host John Dickerson that U.S. intelligence officials should neither specifically target Muslims nor mosques.

Paul also labeled the calls "bulls**t" and "hogwash" during an event last week at George Washington University.

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