Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson told
Newsmax TV Friday that he was pleased that front-runner Donald Trump was not at the debate in Des Moines on Thursday and that voters should fully examine his record to determine whether he is a true conservative.
"I was glad that he wasn't there — because when he is there, he becomes the center of attention and they ask him most of the questions," the retired pediatric neurosurgeon told "The Steve Malzberg Show" in an interview. "Though I maybe got one extra question, they still weren't very equitable with their questioning."
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Rather than putting "too much emphasis on labels," voters must evaluate candidates for themselves, Carson said.
"Are you a liberal? Are you a moderate? What are you?" he asked. "What would be really better is to delve deeply into one of the least.
"Why not examine him? Say, what is your feeling about life? When does life begin? What are your feelings about marriage? What constitutes a normal relationship? What is an abnormal relationship?
"Question him on these things and see what he says," Carson said. "That would seem to be an easier thing to do."
He accused both Trump and news organizations of undermining his credibility in what Carson called "a perfect storm."
"There were a lot of attacks in the media at that time, almost simultaneously: The West Point story, the temper story, the Yale psychology class story all came out within a week of each other — and every single one of them has been debunked.
"They never come back and state that, though, of course.
"And then, you had the San Bernardino and the Paris attacks all flowed together — and a narrative was being painted that a nice person really can't deal with ISIS, can't deal with radical Islamic terrorists in an appropriate way.
"It was sort of a perfect storm, and that's something that I've had to fight back," he told Malzberg. "Most people I don't think would have survived all of that — but I'm still here, and we're fighting back and we're going to rise again."
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