Excerpt:
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson said Saturday that he wants to expand the government's surveillance operations aimed at potential terrorist threats, even beyond tracking American Muslims as rival Donald Trump has suggested.
Trump tried Saturday to back away from his support for a government database to track Muslims in the United States, an idea that drew sharp rebukes from other Republican presidential candidates and disbelief from legal experts.
Carson, who has joined Trump atop GOP presidential preference polls, did not delve into constitutional questions about whether expanding government surveillance activities would violate First Amendment protections.