Ben Carson has "a lot of things in his past," fellow GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump said Tuesday, and "those problems are going to start to come out" now that the retired neurosurgeon is coming out on top of several of the latest presidential polls.
"When you're in first place, it's like a cleansing action," Trump told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "Lots of things will come out, and we'll see how he holds up to the scrutiny. I've been there for 100 days."
Four polls now show Trump behind Carson in Iowa, with the latest
Monmouth University Poll putting Carson on top by 14 points; and a
Loras College poll giving Carson the nod by 31 percent to 19 percent.
And nationally, a new
CBS/New York Times poll released today puts Carson just ahead of Trump for the first time nationally, by 26 percent to 22 percent.
Trump told MSNBC that he doesn't "get it" when it comes to the polls, as he has "tremendous crowds" and "tremendous love" in Iowa, and that he was on top in Iowa from the beginning.
"I would have thought we were doing much better," he told the show. "I think we are doing much better, actually."
But with Carson, he said there is "a lot of contradiction and a lot of questions."
"One thing about a front-runner, you get analyzed 15 different ways from China," said Trump. "A lot of things will come out. "
For example, said Trump, Carson was "pro-abortion not so long ago, as everybody has told me," but now he's "so hard on abortion under no circumstance, there can be no exceptions. How can that happen when you were pro-[abortion] not so long ago."
And there will be "lots of other things," said Trump about Carson, "including what happened in hospitals."
Also on Tuesday, while many people say they're choosing Trump because he's never been a politician, he told the show he has "a lot of experience in politics."
"Every deal I've done in my life practically has been political," he said. "I deal with prime ministers and heads of country. I've been very political. [This is] the only time I've been a so-called politician."
He said that will give him an edge over Carson, as he will "make the best trade deals" and will be the "strongest on the military" and will "get rid of Obamacare."
"Ben wants to knock out Medicare," said Trump. "I heard that over the weekend. He wants to abolish Medicare. Abolishing Medicare, I don't think you'll get away with that one. It's actually a program that's worked. It's a program that some people love, actually."
Trump also took on Jeb Bush, saying that he doesn't know if he has what it takes to be president, but so far his campaign has not been good because he's spent too much money.
He also railed against super PACs, calling them a "disgrace" and a "scam."
"I had nine or 11 or some huge number of PACS set up for me by people I don't know," he said, just days after he told the
PACS to return the money they collected to donors and called on other candidates to disavow them.
"If you look at Ben Carson, his PAC is running his Iowa campaign and it's not supposed to be done like that," said Trump. "The PACS are totally out of control and those are the people that are puppets are controlling the candidates"
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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