Two of retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson’s 2016 GOP presidential rivals said Monday that Mr. Carson shouldn’t exactly be surprised about the heightened media scrutiny amid recent questions surrounding his violent history when he was younger.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said he’s written 12 books that have been put under incredible scrutiny and said people know that if they run for office, they’re going to be “put through the sausage grinder.”
Mr. Huckabee said he didn’t want to get into what Mr. Carson did or didn’t do, but that he was taken aback at Mr. Carson’s surprise that people are now digging into the retired doctor’s personal life.
“I’m thinking, pal, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” Mr. Huckabee said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “They have not yet come after your kids and the rest of your family — they will. This is part of the part of the process. This ain’t bean bag, as we say, and it is a brutal process. I’ve been through it for 26 years and life ain’t fair. I’m telling you.
“But I will [go] on record today and tell you this … I never hit my mother with a hammer and I never stabbed anybody. Never wrote about it either. So there you go. At least I’m out there on the record for that,” he said.
Mr. Carson has stood by claims that as a child, he tried to hit his mother with a hammer and tried to stab another boy. He has attacked the media amid heightened scrutiny of his past as he has risen to the top or near the top of public polling on the 2016 GOP field, both nationally and in early presidential states.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Monday on CNN’s “New Day” that “we’re all responsible for our own personal stories.”
“I heard him this morning say he’s been more scrutinized than anybody in this race. … Is he kidding?” Mr. Christie said, subsequently alluding to the 2013 “Bridgegate” scandal and its aftermath. “Did he watch what I went through in January of 2014 for months and months of relentless attacks from people in the media and in the partisan Democratic party when it turned out that I did absolutely nothing wrong?
“I haven’t gotten a note of apology from anybody yet,” Mr. Christie said. “So I gotta tell you, a couple of days of being asked about something that you put in your books — I gotta tell you, I don’t have a whole lot of sympathy.”
On Monday morning, Mr. Carson posted to his Facebook page a 1997 Parade Magazine interview with his mother, Sonya, in which she recounts the attempted stabbing incident.
He has declined to provide names of people who could back up his stories of youthful anger, saying he doesn’t think it’s fair to subject them to the media feeding frenzy.
On NBC’s “Today” program, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Monday he thinks questions are fair but there’s a double standard with the media when it comes to scrutinizing Democrats and Republicans.
“We kind of wish the media would be just as obsessed or half [as] obsessed with Hillary Clinton’s lies of many years,” Mr. Priebus said. “I would say that Hillary Clinton’s past is something that people ought to be obsessed with.”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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