Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump launched an attack on rival Ben Carson's biographical claims at a rally in Iowa Thursday, at one point repeating a comparison between Carson's "pathological temper" and child molestation.
At one point, after questioning the retired neurosurgeon's story of how he nearly stabbed a friend during his adolescence, Trump bellowed, ""How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of this country to believe this crap?"
Earlier, in an interview with CNN, Trump pointed to Carson's own descriptions of his violent actions during his youth.
"That's a big problem because you don't cure that," Trump said. "That's like, you know, I could say, they say you don't cure — as an example, child molester. You don't cure these people. You don't cure the child molester." Trump also said that "pathological is a very serious disease."
When asked if he was satisfied with Carson's claims that his anger was in the past, Trump responded, "You'll have to ask him that question ... Look, I hope he's fine because I think it would be a shame."
Carson's ability to overcome his anger as well as an impoverished childhood to become a world-renowned neurosurgeon has been a central chapter in his personal story.
In his book "Gifted Hands," Carson described the uncontrollable anger he felt at times while growing up in inner-city Detroit. He wrote that on one occasion he nearly punched his mother and on another he attempted to stab a friend with a knife.
"I had what I only can label a pathological temper — a disease — and this sickness controlled me, making me totally irrational," Carson said in describing the incident with his mother. He referred to "pathological anger" again in telling about lunging at his friend, the knife blade breaking off when it hit the boy's belt buckle.
During the rally Thursday night in Fort Dodge, where he spoke for 93 minutes, Trump told the crowd that "Carson's an enigma to me" and questioned story after story in Carson's biography. He acted out the scene of Carson trying to stab his friend, lurching forward and shouting, "but, low and behold, it hit the belt!"
"He said he's pathological and got pathological disease," Trump said of Carson at the rally, "I don't want a person who's got pathological disease ... There's no cure for that, folks ... He's a pathological, damaged temper."
Carson describes in "Gifted Hands" racing to the bathroom in his house after the near-stabbing incident and in time began to pray for God's help in dealing with his temper. "During those hours alone in the bathroom, something happened to me," he wrote. "God heard my deep cries of anguish. A feeling of lightness flowed over me, and I knew a change of heart had taken place. I felt different. I was different."
In questioning Carson's religious awakening, Trump said in Fort Dodge that Carson went into the bathroom and came out and "now he's religious."
"And the people of Iowa believe him. Give me a break. Give me a break. It doesn't happen that way," he said. "Don't be fools."
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