Trump likens Carson's 'pathological' temper to child molesting: 'You don't cure these people'


In an interview Thursday, Donald Trump said that his fellow Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson has a "pathological temper," which, like "child molesting," has "no cure."
"It's in the book that he's got a pathological temper," he told CNN's Erin Burnett, referring to Carson's 1990 autobiography Gifted Hands. "That's a big problem because you don't cure that ... as an example: child molesting. You don't cure these people. You don't cure a child molester. There's no cure for it. Pathological, there's no cure for that." Carson wrote that as a youth, he was very violent, once trying to stab a friend; Carson has also mentioned nearly attacking his mother with a hammer. "I'm not bringing up anything that's not in his book," Trump said. "You know, when he says he went after his mother with a hammer, that bothers me. I mean, that's pretty bad."
When asked by Burnett if he believes Carson when he says his anger is a thing of the past, Trump said he didn't know. "You'll have to ask him that question," he said. "Look, I hope he's fine because I think it would be a shame. ... He's saying these things happen and therefore I have credibility. And what I'm saying is, I'd rather have them if they didn't happen. I don't want somebody who hit somebody in the face with a padlock." Armstrong Williams, the Carson campaign's business manager, responded to Trump's remarks, telling CNN: "Mr. Trump has resentment when he sees Dr. Carson rise. He lashes out like he did tonight."
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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