GOP field strikes back after Donald Trump’s anti-Ben Carson rant

Donald Trump’s rivals for the Republican presidential nod are not taking kindly to Thursday’s surprisingly insult-laden — even by Trump standards — speech.

At Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge, the real estate magnate lashed out against his competition, saving the most vitriol for retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, now his rival for the top spot in several national polls.

In one fell swoop, Trump managed to insult the intelligence of the American people and the residents of the battleground state in particular.

“How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of this country to believe this crap?” Trump said.

The most provocative attack of the evening compared Carson’s self-professed “pathological temper” as a young man to pedophilia.

“If you’re a child molester, a sick puppy, there’s no cure for that. … Pathological, there’s no cure. Now he said he was pathological, OK,” the billionaire businessman said to the crowd. “He said he went after his mother with a hammer. He wanted to hit her on the head. … And I said, ‘Wow, that’s tough.’ Man, did anyone in this audience ever go after your mother to hit her on the head with a hammer?”

Trump also referenced Carson’s claim in his book “Gifted Hands” that he tried to stab a friend but the blade broke when it hit his belt buckle. Carson revealed these troubling moments from his past long before he announced a campaign for president. The violent outbursts in Detroit became central to his inspirational rags-to-riches story.

Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge on Thursday. (Photo: Charlie Neibergall/AP)

According to Trump, though, they demonstrate that Carson is either a pathological liar or a vicious criminal beyond rehabilitation (despite a lifetime of professional and personal accomplishments suggesting otherwise).

“And he goes into the bathroom for a couple of hours and now he’s religious. And the people of Iowa believe him. Give me a break. Give me a break,” Trump said. “It doesn’t happen that way. … Some people might not like it. ‘Oh, that’s not really nice what you say.’ Don’t be fools. Don’t be fools.”

The backlash was swift.

Carly Fiorina, former chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard, defended Carson against Trump’s insults in a Facebook post later that night. She facetiously excused herself for “interrupting,” which Trump accused her of doing during the last GOP debate on Tuesday.

“Donald, sorry, I’ve got to interrupt again. You would know something about pathological,” Fiorina wrote. “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.”

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Friday that he thinks Trump experienced a meltdown and that the speech marked a turning point for his campaign.

“Dr. Carson found redemption in the Lord. He’s a good and decent man,” Graham told Fox News. “Donald Trump is the most uninformed person I’ve ever met running for president when it comes to foreign policy.”

Ben Carson waits for a question while speaking during a presidential town hall series at Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C., on Friday. (Photo: Chris Keane/Reuters)

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush suggested that Trump may have misfired with his “how stupid are Iowans” comment, according to political reporter Dave Weigel.

“He’d better go back to the marketing department on that one,” Bush said.

When asked about the recent insults, Carson told Yahoo News’ Katie Couric Friday that someone needs to explain to Trump what “pathological” actually means.

“Because it doesn’t mean that it can’t be cured,” he said. “So — perhaps some of his advisers can actually go talk to some people who understand what that term means and educate him until he wouldn’t say things like that.”

This morning Trump posted a short video to his Instagram page to double-down on his Carson attacks and supposedly celebrate Friday the 13th. In the clip, Carson says, “I had a large camping knife and I tried to stab him in the abdomen,” over background music befitting a horror movie. Then it cuts to one of Carson’s old neighbors from Detroit telling CNN that the story does not sound like the person he knew.

Again, Trump argues that Carson is either a violent criminal or a pathological liar, neither of which would make a good commander in chief. But Trump’s venom has fellow candidates in the GOP field questioning his own competency to lead.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whose campaign slogan is “telling it like it is,” said there are some things presidential candidates just should not say.

“When you run for president of the United States, everything that comes out of your mouth matters,” Christie said on conservative commentator Laura Ingraham’s radio show. “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.”

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