Trump Goes After Carson

Trump goes after Carson on alleged lies about his background, drilling down particularly about the story about attempting to stab a cousin with a knife, and pyramid schemes:

Trump claims both to not believe the knife story, and to find Carson's temper "pathological," which sounds like he does believe the story. Well, no one's voting for Trump for conceptually consistency.

Washington (CNN)Donald Trump said Sunday that he remains alarmed by Ben Carson's claims of having a violent temper as a youth, but the real estate mogul said he doesn't know if his Republican presidential rival has been dishonest.

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"It's a lot of scrutiny and frankly, it's a lot of statements that are under fire, and I hope Ben's going to be OK with it. It's going to be interesting to see what happens -- time will tell," Trump said.

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But Trump also implied that Carson's story about attempting to stab someone in his youth -- only to have his knife broken when he hit a large belt buckle -- was hard to believe.

"Belt buckles really pretty much don't stop stabbing," Trump said. "They turn, they twist, things slide off them -- pretty lucky if that happened."

Trump said Carson's description of his childhood temper as "pathological" is disturbing.

"It's a serious statement when you say you have a pathological disease, because if I understand it, you can't really cure it," Trump said.

See? Is he saying the story's false, or that it's true?

Anyway, as to the veracity of the story, Ben Carson's mother confirmed it, back in 1997, before Carson could have been conceiving some kind of presidential campaign.

Bear in mind, we're in the weird situation where NY Magazine can snark with the headine, Candidate Defends Himself From Accusation That He Did Not Stab a Child. Carson said this happened; his detractors say that he didn't try to stab anyone, as a criticism, I guess.

Trump has also hit Carson on his "scholarship" story and "pyramids."

David French says Carson's claim about being offered a "scholarship" to West Point before actually applying tracks with his own experience:

Many years ago I was "offered" an ROTC scholarship before I even applied. After speaking with officers familiar with my academic record, they told me I would receive a full academic scholarship, and that the application was a mere formality. My teenage self certainly took their statements as an "offer," and I wouldn’t have applied without their word. (I filled out the forms and was formally accepted, but declined in favor of a better scholarship elsewhere.)

The most Trump-like attack was Trump's statement that Carson should "start taking pills" for his "‘pathological disease."

Video of Trump on O'Reilly here.

This happens as Carson notches Trump in South Carolina, 28-27. Statistical tie, but Carson "ahead."

posted by Ace at 06:52 PM

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