Ben Carson 'open' to being Trump's VP

Dr. Ben Carson and Donald Trump

Retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson left the door open on Tuesday to serving as vice president in a Trump administration.

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Fox Business host Neil Cavuto, interviewing Carson from New Hampshire, pressed him on this issue as primary voters began casting ballots. The Republican hopeful recently settled for a fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucus and has polled at the bottom of the pack in the Granite State.

"Would you ever be open to a VP spot [with Trump]?" asked Cavuto, Mediaite reported.

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"I would have to have major philosophical alignment with whoever it was. I would have to have guarantees that I could do some substantial things," replied Carson. "I certainly would sit down and discuss it."

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Cavuto then tried to goad Carson into saying he would reject an offer from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, but the candidate quickly changed the subject.

"Rather than get into that, let’s say as long as there is significant philosophical alignment, I wouldn’t have any problem. ... I'm aiming to really change this country in the same way that I came up with new ways to do very complex things that people have been trying to do for a long period of time. That's what I want to do with this country," said Carson.

Cruz apologized to the Carson campaign after the Iowa caucus for incorrectly telling precinct captains the retired neurosurgeon was dropping out of the race.

"Last night when our political team saw the CNN post saying that Dr. Carson was not carrying on to New Hampshire and South Carolina, our campaign updated grassroots leaders just as we would with any breaking news story," Cruz said in a statement released Feb. 2, WND reported. "That's fair game. What the team then should have done was send around the follow-up statement from the Carson campaign clarifying that he was indeed staying in the race when that came out. This was a mistake from our end, and for that I apologize to Dr. Carson."

Carson called the episode evidence of "dirty tricks" and then implied Cruz was a false prophet.

"When I say, 'by their fruit you will know them,' that was the Sermon on the Mount," Carson said at the National Press Club in the nation's capital on Feb. 3. "And it was in the context, what Jesus was saying, there are some people who aren't what they seem to be, who say one thing and do another. But you can always tell who they are by their fruit, how they act."

Polls show Donald Trump with a commanding lead in New Hampshire