Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Sunday he’s baffled by recent polls that show him suddenly trailing Ben Carson among voters in the crucial state of Iowa. Trump praised Matt Lauer as being a very fair member of the media, one that “The Donald” has always liked.
Advertisement
But there are several differences in the current campaign that may indicate Trump’s lead today could be more sustainable than either Cain’s or Guiliani’s, experts say.
His criticism of Carson comes after a poll out last week, showing Carson pulling ahead of Trump in Iowa for the first time.
Trump and Carson are considered among the least electable general election candidates by the Republican Party’s professionals, those who are in the business of helping candidates run campaigns and win elections. “He’s got people all over Iowa from his PAC, and they are running – Ben doesn’t even go to Iowa that much”.
“I’ve realized where my success has come from, and I don’t in any way deny my faith in God”, Carson said in the latest Fox News interview. “We’ve allowed the purveyors of the vision to make mothers think that that baby is their enemy and that they have a right to kill it. Can you see how perverted that line of thinking is?”
“I’ve done really well with the evangelicals and with the tea party and everything and I just don’t understand the number, but I accept the number”, Trump said. “I do have a tendency to be relaxed”, Carson said.
Calling Iraq the “Harvard of terrorism”, Trump said the country had turned into a “training ground for terrorists”. And I don’t get into the mud pit, and I’m not going to be talking about people.
Trump insisted Carson’s SuperPAC, the 2016 Committee, is a big reason he’s doing well in Iowa.
“I get these two polls – and remember, I don’t believe them, I don’t believe them – in Iowa”.
Instead, a defiant Trump defended his decision to prop up his Presbyterian religion at a campaign stop while casting doubt on Carson’s Seventh-day Adventist faith.
“Not everywhere else”, he said, “because everywhere else I see they’re all different people all over the lot, all scattered all over the place”. He said you’re very weak on immigration.
George Stephanopoulous, host of ABC’s “This Week,” asked Mr. Trump whether his focus on Seventh-day Adventism was an attempt to try and diminish Dr. Carson’s support among evangelicals in Iowa.
Speaking three weeks ago at the Univerity of New Hampshire, Carson again alluded to his troubled life growing up in Detroit.
And if they don’t want me, that’s fine, too.
Advertisement
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.
