Former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson says he once rejected an offer from President Obama to serve as the nation’s top doctor.
In an interview with the "Alan Colmes Show" on Monday, the retired neurosurgeon said Obama had asked him to be surgeon general, as did President George W. Bush.
“You know George W. Bush offered me that position. The Obama administration, before they found out who I really was, offered me that position," he said in the interview, highlighted by BuzzFeed News.
Carson said he's "not interested" in the job, even if Donald Trump is elected president.
The surgeon general, who must be confirmed by the Senate, oversees public health issues but has little input in general health policy.
Carson himself has criticized the position in an interview from October 2014, also with the Colmes's show. When asked if he would take the position under Obama, Carson replied: “The surgeon general is a very ceremonial position. It has no power to do anything.”
In that interview, Carson didn't say that Obama had offered him the post.
Obama has nominated four people to serve as surgeon general, though the Senate only confirmed two of them. That includes the man who currently holds the post, Dr. Vivek Murthy, who ended a 17 month-long vacancy when he was picked in December 2014.
Carson, who became an ally of Trump after ending his own presidential bid, said Monday he did not plan to take any position with a potential Trump administration.
“I will certainly continue to talk to [Trump] and advise him, but I do not want a government position,” Carson said.
