Trump speaking during a campaign stop at Iowa Central Community College on Thursday evening in Fort Dodge, Iowa.
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In addition to gaining momentum with likely primary voters, Trump also holds a significant edge over Carson among all Republicans, with 34 percent compared to Carson’s 20 percent of support.
To undercut Carson’s account of trying to stab a boy when he was 14, only to have the knife miraculously stopped by the victim’s belt buckle, Trump staged a mock stabbing. He referred to “pathological anger” again in telling about lunging at his friend, during which the blade of his knife broke when it hit the boy’s belt buckle. Trump declared. “Give me a break”. “He just went to far”, says Republican strategist Susan Del Percio. Which is how you know they’re not tough.
Carson, meanwhile, brushed off Trump’s attacks, saying it was more “politics of personal destruction”. Trump said. “How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?” Want to try it on me? “It doesn’t happen that way”, Mr Trump told the rally.
“And the people of Iowa believe him”.
Trump denied that he singled out Fiorina for interrupting other candidates. “Pathological liar? We don’t need either as president”.
Trump then openly wondered why Carson was doing so well with everything he has admitted to in his life.
“If you cross the United States border illegally, you get a job, you get a driver’s license… you get food stamps, you get a place to live, you get health care, housing, child benefits and in many cases education”.
Republican U.S. presidential candidates Dr. Ben Carson (left) and Donald Trump talk during a commercial break at the second official Republican presidential candidates debate of the 2016 United States presidential campaign at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, on September 16, 2015. “Okay? There’s no cure for that”, Trump said at the rally in Fort Dodge, Iowa.
Fiorina previously criticized Trump for making comments about her appearance that she considered sexist, and Trump later said she had a attractive face.
“The rest of the field still is wishing on a star that Trump and Carson are going to self-destruct”, said Eric Fehrnstrom, a former adviser to 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney.
Donald Trump’s rivals for the Republican presidential nod are not taking kindly to Thursday’s surprisingly insult-laden – even by Trump standards – speech.
“That’s a big problem because you don’t cure that…as an example: child molesting. And I’ve said that before, but I really believe it”, Graham said during a Fox News interview”.
Trump remains ahead of Carson on social media sentiment, according to Thomson Reuters data.
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“He’s said in the book – and I haven’t seen it – I know it’s in the book that he’s got a pathological temper or temperament”. His base loves him and I’m to the point of thinking he can do nearly anything short of murder on stage and they’ll eat it up.
