Is Donald Trump’s attack on Ben Carson justified?
Donald Trump used his time on stage at a rally in Fort Dodge, Iowa to eviscerate and enact Ben Carson’s past self-described misdeeds. It was a 95 minute diatribe. The excerpt above is a representative sample.
An attack this vicious on another candidate especially of the same party is not generally seen. In fact it was evident that Donald Trump was using a plethora of dog whistles in his attack.
“So he said he has pathological disease,” Donald Trump said referring to Ben Carson. “Now if you are pathological there is no cure for that folks.”
Trump then slyly attempts to equate Carson’s self-described pathology with child molestation. “If you are a child molester,” Trump said. “There is no cure. They can’t stop you. Pathological, there is no cure.”
Donald Trump then enacted Carson stabbing a friend with a knife. The friend was presumably saved by his belt buckle. Trump doesn’t believe it really happened. “Give me a break,” Trump said. “How stupid are the people of Iowa. How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap.”
Trump said Carson is saying all these things about his past because otherwise Carson is a liar. “Gimme 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. … What have we come to when we have to believe this kind of stuff. And we are going to put someone in office who considers himself to have pathological disease. Read the definition of pathological disease. And I am not saying it. He said it about himself before he knew he was going to run for office.”
Given the mood of many of Trump’s followers, it is doubtful that this rather un-presidential behavior would cause any drop in his poll numbers. That Trump is one of the front-runners for any party should have us worried not about Trump but about the electorate.