Tea party favorite and potential 2016 presidential candidate Ben Carson gave President Barack Obama some rare praise for his response to the North Korean cyberattack that threatened the release of a Sony Pictures movie . `` I am proud of the president of the United States for taking a tough stand on this issue , '' Carson , a frequent and no-holds-barred critic of Obama , wrote in a Washington Times opinion piece published late Tuesday . `` It was extremely encouraging to see the United States and Sony eventually stand up to the cyberbullying of the North Koreans by allowing the movie 'The Interview ' to be released in theaters around the country despite threats of retaliation . '' Carson has slammed Obama in the past for his policies , most recently his stance on race relations in the wake of incidents in Ferguson and New York , and once criticized the direction of the country with Obama just a few feet away . Carson did measure his kudos to the President , adding in the opinion piece that the U.S. response `` should go far beyond proportionality . '' Obama had said that the U.S. would respond proportionally to the cyberattack , which the FBI said North Korea was `` responsible '' for . North Korea denied involvement in the Sony hack and instead threatened attacks on `` all the citadels of the U.S . imperialists . '' `` The response should go far beyond proportionality , and an example should be made of the perpetrators by using a host of available options to inflict the kind of punishment that will not be easily forgotten , '' Carson wrote , adding that he believes the U.S. `` appears to be a paper tiger '' and is less respected and feared around the world . Sen. Lindsey Graham ( R-South Carolina ) , who is also considering a 2016 presidential run , also gave Obama a rare kudos in an interview with CNN 's State of the Union published Sunday . `` So far so good , Mr. President , '' Graham said . But Graham also measured his praise , saying Obama should have called the attack an act of cyberterrorism and not the `` cybervandalism '' Obama described in a CNN interview .
Ben Carson is a frequent critic of the President and popular among conservative ##s . He criticized Obama 's handling of North Korea and attacks and threats against theaters . Carson hedged some of his criticism to say the President should not have been ' proportional '