Ben Carson is firing back on all cylinders against what he says are efforts by the media to derail his campaign.
The Republican presidential candidate, who is leading in some polls, ripped journalists during a round of Sunday morning interviews for what he called “special scrutiny” of his past.
“There’s no question I’m getting special scrutiny,” Carson said on CBS’ “Face The Nation,” as he spoke via satellite from Puerto Rico.
Moderator John Dickerson reminded the presidential contender that Democratic candidates, including then-Senator Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, were scrutinized by journalists as well. But Carson insisted reporters are digging even deeper into his past because he’s doing so well in the polls.
“A lot of people are very threatened, and then, you know, they’ve seen the recent head-to-head polling against Hillary and how well I do. And, you know, they’re worried. There is no question about it,” said Carson. “Every single day, every other day or every week, you know, they’re going to come out with, ‘Well, you said this when you were 13.’ And the whole point is to distract the populous, distract me.”
Carson was responding to reports questioning accounts of his past, including acts of violence and an invitation to attend West Point. On Friday, Politico published a report saying the former neurosurgeon fabricated a story in his 2009 autobiography “Gifted Hands,” about being “offered a full scholarship to West Point.” Also on Friday, CNN’s Alisyn Camerota grilled Carson on the lack of evidence to support his accounts of being a violent child.
During a phone interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Carson defended his previous statements and called the negative stories a “political hit job.”
“Show me somebody, even from your business, the media, who is 100 percent accurate in everything that they say that happened 40 or 50 years ago,” he said.
Meanwhile NBC’s “Meet the Press” caught up with Carson outside an airport, where he said the negative press coverage is actually bolstering support among his base.
“People are seeing through exactly what’s going on, and they’re getting fired up,” Carson told Senior White House Correspondent Chris Jansing.
“Every place I go, you know — I go to a book signing, there’s a thousand people in line [saying] ‘please don’t let them get to you. Don’t give up. We got your back.’”
Jansing reminded Carson that President Obama faced similar scrutiny when he ran for the White House, including questions about his birth certificate. But the Republican candidate insisted that the coverage of Obama was never “this bad.”