The longtime business partner of 2016 GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson says it’s “sad to watch” billionaire businessman Donald Trump “imploding before our very eyes” in the race for the GOP nomination.
“It’s so sad watching and listening to him,” Armstrong Williams said on CNN’s “New Day.” “I mean, a man who is so accomplished, who has been so blessed, but yet cannot fathom why Dr. Carson or anyone else would be doing better than he in the presidential race right now.”
The two men have been running close to neck-and-neck in recent polling on the 2016 GOP field.
“He just cannot accept leading from behind,” Mr. Williams said. “He cannot accept being challenged. He cannot reconcile how this is happening. Obviously, he only wants to be on the stage by himself, crowned the nominee, and run against the eventual Democratic challenger.”
On multiple occasions Thursday, Mr. Trump likened Mr. Carson’s “pathological” temper — which the retired neurosurgeon has written about as a formative part of his younger years — to the incurable behavior of a child molester.
At a rally in Iowa, Mr. Trump also jokingly invited someone in the crowd to try stabbing him in the belt to put one of Mr. Carson’s stories of trying to stab someone as a teenager to the test. In the incident in Mr. Carson’s life, the knife hit the person’s belt buckle and broke — an incident the retired neurosurgeon has described as crucial to turning his life around.
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“He took a knife, and he went after a friend, and he lunged,” Mr. Trump said, moving his hand forward. “He lunged that knife into the stomach of his friend, but lo and behold, it hit the belt. It hit the belt. And the knife broke.”
“Give me a break. Give me a break. Give me a break,” Mr. Trump said. “The knife broke.”
“So I have a belt: Somebody hits me with a belt, it’s going in because the belt moves this way. It moves this way, it moves that way,” Mr. Trump said, moving the waistline of his pants. “He hit the belt buckle. Anybody have a knife? You want to try it on me? Believe me, it ain’t gonna work. You’re going to be successful, but he took the knife, he went like this and he plunged it into the belt and amazingly the belt stayed totally flat and the knife broke.”
“How stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Williams said Mr. Carson feels “sorry” for Mr. Trump because he likes what he brings to the campaign.
“But to see him just imploding before our very eyes, it’s just — it’s sad to watch,” Mr. Williams said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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