Former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson Wednesday chalked up Donald Trump's vicious attacks on him earlier in the campaign to politics, saying that they "did work."
"He said it was political,"
Carson told Yahoo News. "He was concerned about the fact that he couldn't shake me.
"I understand, you know, politics, and particularly the politics of personal distraction," the retired pediatric neurosurgeon added. "You have to admit to some degree that it did work. A lot of people believed him."
Trump bitterly slammed several parts of Carson's 1996 autobiography, saying that his youthful "pathological anger" likened him to a child molester, amid other personal attacks.
Carson dropped out of the race earlier this month and then endorsed Trump.
Yahoo anchor Bianna Golodryga then asked Carson whether she should teach her son to engage in such attacks, fearing that such behavior could become the norm.
"It shouldn't become status quo," he said. "But neither should always retaliating."