GOP candidate Ben Carson Friday afternoon denied that Donald Trump intentionally called him a "child molester" during a CNN interview or during a fiery 95-minute speech in Iowa, throwing blame instead at the media for misconstruing the real estate mogul's comments, while numerous conservatives and fellow candidates stood up for him against Trump's attacks.
"I don't believe he called me a child molester," Carson told reporters in South Carolina,
reports Newsweek. "I always find it a little amusing what people in the press like to say: 'You compare this and therefore you said they're the same.' I don't buy all that stuff. So those are questions we should ask Donald Trump."
Carson also did not take on Trump for the speech, during which he threw the retired neurosurgeon's comments that he was "pathological" back at him, telling reporters Friday that voters are sick of the "politics of destruction,"
reports The Hill.
"I'm hopeful that at some point we’ll reach a level of maturity that we can actually get to the issues facing us right now and stop getting into the mud and doing things that really don’t matter,” Carson said.
"I expect that kind of [attack], that's what's been going on in this country for years," he added. "I don't expect that to change any time soon, but I don't have to get into it."
Meanwhile, Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson,
appearing on Fox News on Friday, defended Trump's comments on Carson, telling the show that a "lot of people are having a hard time understanding what's revolving" around him.
Pierson denied that Trump was calling Carson a child molester.
"The most common pathology used in terms of health care is unfortunately child molestation," she said, however.
Meanwhile, conservatives and other candidates were livid Friday about Trump's attacks on Carson.
"Donald, sorry, I've got to interrupt again," GOP candidate Carly Fiorina
said in a Facebook post, referring to when Trump scolded her during Tuesday night's GOP debate for interrupting. "You would know something about pathological. How was that meeting with Putin? Or Wharton? Or your self-funded campaign? Anyone can turn a multi-million dollar inheritance into more money, but all the money in the world won't make you as smart as Ben Carson."
GOP candidate Chris Christie, meanwhile, told conservative radio show host Laura Ingraham Friday that Trump's actions and words were not presidential,
reports Politico.
"When you run for president of the United States, everything that comes out of your mouth matters," the New Jersey governor told Ingraham. "I think that kind of stuff is, you know, not the kind of stuff that a candidate for president of the United States should be talking about."
GOP candidate
Lindsey Graham told Fox News Friday that he thinks Trump "melted down" during the speech, in which he blasted nearly all of his rivals for the Republican nomination, especially Carson, his main competitor.
"I think is the turning point," said Graham. "Dr. Carson has found redemption in the Lord. He is a good, decent man. Donald Trump is the most uninformed person I have ever met running for president when it comes to foreign policy. He has no clue of what he is talking about."
Other conservatives complained Friday about Trump's words as well.
"Look, that whole rant in Iowa is the reason we should not have a reality show star as president of the United States," former New Hampshire
Gov. John Sununu told CNN's "New Day" program. "I'm not a great fan of Ben Carson's, but [Trump's] attack was irrational, it was rude, it was crude and frankly, politically speaking, it was dumb," Sununu told host Alisyn Camerota.
Sununu continued that such comments are typical for Trump.
"It applies equally to the fact that every strategy that Mr. Trump puts on the table is dependent on hot rhetoric to get the emotional reaction from voters but has no rationality or substance behind it in terms of being able to be implemented," he said.
Conservative National Journal writer Ron Fornier also spoke out about Trump's comments in a Twitter post: