In what is being bandied about in the DC Media as an “epic 95-minute rant,” Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump lit into his primary rival, Dr. Ben Carson, during a speech in Iowa Thursday night. Also in the billionaire businessman’s sites were the media, ISIS, Hillary Clinton, and voters.
You can watch the Carson portion below:
—
—
Using the starkest of terms, a physical re-enactment, and no small amount of showmanship, Trump blasted Carson, his violent past (from more than 40 years ago), his mental stability, and even the sincerity of his religious conversion:
So I have a belt … Somebody [tries to stab me] me with a belt, [the knife is] going in because the belt moves this way. It moves this way, it moves that way. [Carson] hit the belt buckle [with the knife]. Anybody have a knife? Want to try it on me? Believe me, it ain’t gonna work. You’re going to be successful, but he took the knife and went like this and he plunged it into the belt and, amazing, the belt stayed totally flat and the knife broke.
Trump then questioned whether or not Carson could ever truly be cured by what Carson himself has described as a “pathological” temper. Trump compared Carson’s pathology to that of a child molester:
That’s a big problem because you don’t cure that. 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.
In his biography, Carson has written about finding God after one of his violent outbursts, and doing so while sitting alone for hours in a bathroom. Trump wasn’t buying it, and appeared to attack as “fools” and “stupid” voters who have, specifically Iowa voters:
He goes into a bathroom, comes 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. Don’t be fools. …
How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?
Carson’s only response so far has been to ask people to pray for Trump.
To huge applause, Trump promised to “bomb the shit” out of ISIS:
I would bomb the shit out of them. I would just bomb those suckers. And that’s right: I’d blow up the pipes, I’d blow up the refineries. I would blow up every single inch. There would be nothing left.
Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio were not ignored. Trump accused Clinton of playing the “women’s card big league” and mocked Rubio as “weak like a baby” and “not a good poker player because every time he’s under pressure he starts to just profusely sweat.”
You can watch the full speech here.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC