BEN CARSON: I just visited a Syrian refugee camp, and here's what I learned

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson visited a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan last weekend and described what he learned there in a Sunday interview and a Facebook video published Monday.

The Republican presidential candidate announced the trip amid several foreign-policy-related stumbles and misstatements.

But he said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" that he went because he simply likes to see first-hand what he talks about in the campaign.

"Last month we spent $3 billion on Halloween candy," Carson said, speaking from Amman, Jordan. "That's the amount of money that was needed to bridge the shortfall for a year that they're having in Jordan with the refugees. We should think about things like that."

Carson said the experience had not caused him to waver from his strong opposition to Syrian refugees coming to the US. However, he argued that he learned that there is much more the US could do to support the refugees.

"I was very pleasantly surprised to see how welcoming they are," Carson recalled. "I had the opportunity to talk to many of the Syrian refugees and ask them, 'What is your supreme desire?' And it was pretty pretty uniform: They want to go back home, obviously."

He continued, "We're hearing that they all want to come here to the United States. And that's not what they want. They want to go back home. But they said the United States and other nations could be much more supportive of the herculean efforts manifested by the Jordanians, in taking in people at a lot of expense to themselves."

Carson further argued that the US bringing 10,000 or 25,000 people would not "solve the problem," given the millions of people have fled the violence there.

He had a similar message in the Facebook video that his campaign shared Monday.

"Hello friends. We're here in Jordan today, you can see behind me the refugee camp," he said. "The Jordanians have done a spectacular job of opening up their country to try to take in many of the Syrians. But they need a lot more help."

Watch below:

SEE ALSO: Ben Carson used a 'rabid dog' comparison to explain the need to screen Syrian refugees

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