Carson received 32 percent in the Monmouth University poll, 14 points ahead of businessman Donald Trump, who led in national and state-specific polls since July until last week, when two other surveys placed him second in Iowa.
Advertisement
Trump has taken aim at Carson after two polls showed that Carson had surpassed him as the Republican front-runner in Iowa. “In fact, I think nationwide I’m beating Ben with the evangelicals”, Mr. Trump responded. “As I’ve said many times, there have been many times where I’ve operated 12, 15, 20 hours, and that requires a lot of energy. Elect Trump if you want that”.
“I’m a reasonable person and if people can come up with a reasonable explanation of why they would like to kill a baby, I’ll listen”, he said. “At the end of the day, I think Jeb is a very viable candidate; he is re-engineering his campaign”. The billionaire real-estate developer added, “I don’t know what’s going on”. I wasn’t always like that. But, you know, I am soft-spoken. “Fortunately, you know, my life has been changed”.
Over the weekend, Trump also veered into more treacherous political territory – and may have offended the state’s politically active evangelical Christians – by singling out Carson’s Seventh-day Adventist faith and suggesting that it somehow puts his chief rival on the religious fringes when contrasted with Trump’s more “middle of the road” Presbyterian faith.
Trump hit Bush, the former governor of Florida, and Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, with the same line of attack – one he has frequently used against Bush, but has only just begun using against Carson, whose reserved and calm tone strongly contrasts with Trump’s brash appeal. “I’m a Presbyterian, and I had mentioned that, and I did say I don’t know about it”. “Throwing rocks at cars – I really liked that”, he said.
Carson angrily demanded an apology.
Carson, who grew up poor in Detroit before becoming a world-renowned surgeon, has opened up about these incidents before.
Trump said he was “just going to have to work a little bit harder in Iowa”. He knows how to get people to do stuff and he’s not afraid to tell you that. What is his game plan to destroy ISIL? “I think there’s another element sometimes when he’s on camera”.
Carson also has a 17-percentage-point lead over Trump among moderate to liberal voters in Iowa.
Advertisement
But Carson said he was surprised to see Trump bring up his faith. “Trump maintains that he only ‘counterpunches, ‘ but Carson has not been making Trump a focal point of his campaigning in recent weeks”. And the way I kind of look at it, if people resonate what I’m talking about, they will know it’s the truth and what I truly believe. “I said nothing about it. I would never say bad”.
