Donald Trump may have just dropped his most offensive insult yet against Ben Carson.
The real estate developer said Thursday that Carson’s self-described “pathological temper” is incurable, equating it to the sickness of a “child molester.”
“It’s in the book that he’s got a pathological temper,” Trump told CNN’s Erin Burnett about the retired neurosurgeon’s autobiography. “That’s a big problem because you don’t cure that … as an example, child molesting. You don’t cure these people. You don’t cure a child molester. There’s no cure for it. Pathological, there’s no cure for that.”
In his 1990 memoir, “Gifted Hands,” Carson blamed his past violent behavior to a “disease,” which he described as a “pathological temper.” The GOP presidential hopeful said it caused him to strike one friend with a rock and attempt to stab another. Carson also said he once tried to attack his mother with a hammer.
During his sit-down with CNN, Trump questioned Carson’s ability to lead the nation.
“I’m not bringing up anything that’s not in his book,” Trump told Burnett. “You know, when he says he went after his mother and wanted to hit her in the head with a hammer, that bothers me. I mean, that’s pretty bad. When he says he’s pathological — and he says that in the book, I don’t say that — and again, I’m not saying anything, I’m not saying anything other than pathological is a very serious disease. And he said he’s pathological, somebody said he has pathological disease.”
Carson’s personal rise from poverty to top neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins University has become a central theme of his 2016 presidential bid. But the story has come under scrutiny from reporters who have been unable to verify many of Carson’s stories. Trump also questioned his claims.
“When he said he hit a friend of his in the face with a lock, with a pad lock, right in the face, I say, ‘Whoa,’ that’s pretty bad,” Trump said in the interview. “And when he said he stabbed somebody with a knife but it hit a belt buckle — I know all about knives and belt buckles. Belt buckles aren’t gonna stop because they can turn, they can twist … they’re not solid especially if somebody’s got a couple extra pounds on them.”
Asked whether he believed that Carson had let go of his anger, Trump hesitated.
“I just don’t know,” he said. “Look, I hope he’s fine because I think it would be a shame. What he’s saying is these things happen. It’d be nice if he said none of these things did happen. He’s saying these things happen and therefore I have credibility. And what I’m saying is, I’d rather have them if they didn’t happen. I don’t want somebody who hit somebody in the face with a padlock.”
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