Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who has recently slipped somewhat in the polls, announced Thursday he was calling off a planned trip to Nigeria and other African countries because of potential security risks.
He said he will be staying on United States soil for Christmas, canceling trips abroad in the wake of controversy.
Carson told reporters on Thursday, ‘It’s classified information so I’m just going to say it’s too dangerous,’ according to a pool reporter.
The announcement comes just a week after race-leader Donald Trump announced he was postponing his own trip to Israel ‘until after I become president.’
GOP front-runner, Donald Trump and Carson – who visited a refugee camp in Jordan late last month – just recently began receiving Secret Service protection earlier in November.
Carson had planned to visit Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia in late December, including a stop to visit two Siamese twins he famously separated in a surgery when he was a neurosurgeon.
A Carson campaign official said the cancellation of the trip was unrelated to his recent drop to fourth place in recent polls on the race.
Carson had also planned to visit Israel.
‘I would’ve gone if I was doing it in conjunction with the trip, but you know, I’ve been there, I will be there in the future,’ he said. ‘I think this might be a good time to spend a little more time at home.’
In Donald Trump’s case, the cancellation was not necessarily because of a threat, but it came just after his controversial call to ban Muslim immigrants from entering the U.S.
That proposal was denounced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Trump later said he called off the trip out of deference to Netanyahu.
Trump once campaigned for Netanyahu and had bragged about visiting him as recently as earlier this month at the Republican Jewish Coalition candidates’ forum in Washington D.C.
‘I didn’t want to put him under pressure,’ Trump told Fox News. ‘I also did it because I’m in the midst of a very powerful campaign that’s going very well, and it was not that easy to do.’
