Dr. Ben Carson responded on Sunday to attacks from Donald Trump, who has called him “super-low energy,” stating on Meet the Press that he may be soft-spoken, but people should not mistake that for a lack of energy.
Carson, recalling his past, said:
As a teenager, I would go after people with rocks, and bricks, and baseball bats, and hammers. And, of course, many people know the story when I was 14 and I tried to stab someone. You know, fortunately, you know, my life has been changed. And I’m a very different person now.
Carson added, “I do have a tendency to be relaxed. I wasn’t always like that. There was a time when I was, you know, very volatile. But, you know, I changed.”
On Friday in Miami, Trump had ripped Carson for having even less energy than Jeb Bush, whom Trump has called “low-energy.” Trump said, “Ben Carson is super-low energy, right? He’s super-low. Super-low energy. We need tremendous energy. We need tremendous energy.” Trump faked reading a headline, while asserting, “Donald Trump falls to second place behind Ben Carson. We informed Ben, but he was sleeping.”
On Saturday, Carson answered Trump’s charges, saying, “As I’ve said many times, there have been many times where I’ve operated 12, 15, 20 hours, and that requires a lot of energy. Doesn’t require a lot of jumping up and down.”
The two candidates have exchanged barbs regarding their religion. In Iowa, Trump said of Carson’s faith, “I mean, Seventh-day Adventist, I don’t know about. I just don’t know about it.”
On Sunday, Carson said on Fox News that Trump “went ballistic” when Carson queried the sincerity of Trump’s claim that he is a Presbyterian, for which Carson later apologized.
Meanwhile, Trump said on ABC’s This Week, “I know nothing about it really. I’m a Presbyterian, and I had mentioned that, and I did say I don’t know about it. And in fact, those are my exact words,” Trump said. “I didn’t say anything bad about it. I just don’t know about it. I would certainly give an apology if I said something bad about it. But I didn’t. All I said was I don’t know about it.”
Two polls in the past week showed Carson leading Trump in Iowa.
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