Fact check: Ben Carson quoted is true? "I know the President has said that we are not a Judeo-Christian nation, but guess what, he doesn't get to decide that, we get to decide that."

Executive summary: The exact sentence you quoted is not directly found in the supplied source collection, but the materials show Ben Carson repeatedly asserting that the United States is a Judeo‑Christian nation and criticizing efforts to remove religion from public life. Some items contain near‑matching themes and examples of Carson saying Christians have a right to assert faith in public roles, while other items explicitly note the specific quote is absent ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}.

1. What the quote actually claims and why it matters — parsing the assertion

The original sentence combines two claims: first, that a President (implicitly Barack Obama in some contexts) has said the U.S. “is not a Judeo‑Christian nation,” and second, that a President does not get to decide the nation’s identity — “we get to decide.” The materials show Ben Carson often framed national identity around Judeo‑Christian values and argued Americans should push back when faith is excluded from public life; this matches the sentiment of the quote even if not the exact wording. The sources present Carson defending the role of Christianity in public life and urging citizens to preserve those founding values, highlighting why the attribution matters politically and culturally ^{[1] [2]}.

2. Evidence that Carson expressed the same idea in public remarks — supporting sources

Multiple supplied sources document Carson asserting that the United States is a Judeo‑Christian nation and urging adherence to those values. One source reports Carson likening suppression of faith in public life to “schizophrenia,” urging people to stand up for Judeo‑Christian principles that he says the U.S. was founded on, while another describes him defending a county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses on religious grounds, explicitly tying legal actions to religious conviction. These items show Carson has repeatedly said similar things, indicating the quote reflects his broader rhetorical pattern even if not verbatim ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

3. Evidence the exact quotation is not verifiable in the supplied records — countervailing sources

A separate cluster of documents in the collection explicitly states the specific quoted sentence does not appear in their texts. Three entries that compile Ben Carson quotes or discuss his public remarks conclude the particular line in question is absent from those compilations, indicating the phrasing may be a paraphrase or synthesis rather than a direct transcript. These source records are dated 2025 and explicitly note the nonexistence of that exact sentence in their quote collections, which undercuts a claim of verbatim attribution from those pages ^{[4] [5] [6]}.

4. Broader context: related controversial statements and why they influence trust in attributions

The supplied materials also record other contentious Carson statements — for example, asserting Muslims should not be president and defending public officials who refuse services on religious grounds — which shaped media attention and scrutiny of his rhetoric. Because Carson made robust public claims about national identity and faith, paraphrases asserting “we get to decide” fit his documented pattern of arguing citizens, not presidents, determine the cultural character of the nation. Those contextual items explain why a paraphrase attributing that sentiment to Carson is plausible even when the exact sentence does not appear in quote compendia ^{[7] [3]}.

5. Bottom line: verified claim, likely paraphrase, and what’s missing for full verification

The supplied sources establish that Ben Carson repeatedly argued the U.S. is a Judeo‑Christian nation and urged Americans to defend religion in public life; that factual pattern supports the claim’s substantive truth as a summary of his views. However, the exact quoted wording is not found in the provided quote collections and some pieces explicitly state the line is absent, so the sentence should be treated as a plausible paraphrase rather than a verified verbatim quote. If you need full verification of precise wording, seek a primary transcript or dated recording of the speech or interview where the sentence would have been uttered; the supplied documents do not provide that primary text ^{[1] [4] [7]}.