'He's expressing his opinion': Ben Carson defends Trump's rush to judgment on EgyptAir crash

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Ben Carson

Screenshot/Fox News

Ben Carson.

Ben Carson came to the defense of Donald Trump during a Fox News interview Friday, after the presumptive Republican nominee took some heat for proclaiming that he could "practically guarantee" what happened to the EgyptAir plane that crashed early Thursday morning.

Carson, the retired neurosurgeon and ex-2016 presidential hopeful who now acts as a prominent Trump surrogate, said Trump was simply "expressing his opinion."

"It's clear that he's expressing his opinion," Carson said. "Everybody forms opinions about what is going on. I suspect that once all the dust has settled there will be mischief implicated in this crash."

Investigators have yet to determine the cause of the EgyptAir crash, although officials have suggested terrorism is a more likely explanation than a mechanical failure. The plane, which took off from Paris and was headed to Cairo, disappeared over the Mediterranean Sea with 66 people aboard.

"Another plane was blown up and I can practically guarantee who blew it up," Trump said during an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Friday.

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The presumptive nominee tweeted shortly after news of the crash broke that it "looks like yet another terrorist attack" and then asked when the US would "get tough, smart and vigilant."

"Great hate and sickness!" he tweeted.

The Manhattan billionaire did not claim that he believed any one group in particular committed the act of terrorism.

"When you find out what happened to the plane, it will be exactly what I said," Trump added on "Morning Joe." "That plane didn't go down because of mechanical failure."

Carson was asked whether he believed Trump would handle similar situations differently as president and not rush to conclusions ahead of those investigating such instances.

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"I would expect him to entertain all the different possibilities. And more than likely as president, he will have a spokesperson and they will be talking about all the different possibilities," he said, later adding that he doesn't believe Trump will be as vocal on social media once in the Oval Office.

"Probably not to the same degree that you're seeing the tweets and things right now," Carson said. "He's going to be too busy, quite frankly, for that."

Watch Carson's comments below: