FORT DODGE, Iowa -- Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump didn't let up his critique of fellow candidate Ben Carson, issuing a new online video ad that says he's either a "violent criminal" or a "pathological liar."
Trump has equated Carson's childhood "pathological temper" to the illness of a child molester, questioned his religious awakening and berated voters who support the retired neurosurgeon.
"How stupid are the people of Iowa?" declared Trump during a rally at Iowa Central Community College on Thursday night. "How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?"
For 95 minutes, the billionaire businessman criticized not only Carson but also many of his other competitors in the race for the GOP presidential nomination.
The new video continues to question Carson's account of trying to stab a friend when he was young.
"Violent criminal? Or pathological liar?" it asks. "We don't need either as president."
Carson said Trump's broadside is "expected" in politics, but he decried "the politics of personal destruction."
"I'm hopeful at some point that we reach a level of maturity that we can actually deal with the issues that are facing us right now and stop getting into the mud and doing things that really don't matter," Carson told reporters in South Carolina.
At the Iowa rally, Trump also said U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who is rising in the polls, was "weak like a baby, like a baby" and "not a good poker player because every time he's under pressure he starts to just profusely sweat." And he said former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush didn't deserve his attention because his campaign is doing so poorly.
Trump accused Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton of "playing the woman's card, big-league."
Trump also said he would "bomb the s***" out of areas controlled by the Islamic State that are rich with oil and claimed to know more about the terrorist group than U.S. military generals. He talked about how everyone else is wrong on illegal immigration and how even the "geniuses at Harvard" have now backed his way of thinking.
As Trump's rant continued, campaign workers with microphones who were supposed to take questions from the audience instead took a seat, cheering on their boss here and there. The audience laughed at times and clapped for many of Trump's sharp insults. But as the rally wore on, the enthusiasm lessened as several people in the crowd of about 1,500 shook their heads or whispered to their neighbors.
Most of Trump's words were aimed at Carson, whose powerful life story and soft-spoken demeanor have captured the attention of many voters.
Trump previewed his statements in an interview with CNN on Thursday in which the he pointed to Carson's own descriptions of his "pathological temper" as a young man.
"That's a big problem because you don't cure that," Trump said. "That's like, you know, I could say, they say you don't cure -- as an example, child molester. You don't cure these people. You don't cure the child molester." Trump also said that "pathological is a very serious disease."
In his book Gifted Hands, Carson described the uncontrollable anger he felt at times while growing up in inner-city Detroit. He wrote that on one occasion he nearly punched his mother and on another he attempted to stab a friend with a knife.
"I had what I only can label a pathological temper -- a disease -- and this sickness controlled me, making me totally irrational," Carson said, describing the incident with his mother. He referred to "pathological anger" again in telling about lunging at his friend, during which the blade of his knife broke when it hit the boy's belt buckle.
Carson's ability to overcome his anger as well as an impoverished childhood to become a world-renowned neurosurgeon has been a central chapter in his personal story.
A spokesman for Carson declined to comment on Trump's remarks.
During the rally Thursday night in Fort Dodge, Trump said Carson is "an enigma to me."
He went on to repeat the molestation analogy with his comments about pathological temper, and he questioned aspects of Carson's biography. At one point, Trump acted out the scene of Carson trying to stab his friend.
"He lunged that knife into the stomach of his friend, but, lo and behold, it hit the belt!" Trump declared. "Give me a break."
In Gifted Hands, Carson describes racing to the bathroom in his house after the near-stabbing incident -- and beginning to pray for God's help in dealing with his temper.
"During those hours alone in the bathroom, something happened to me," he wrote. "God heard my deep cries of anguish. A feeling of lightness flowed over me, and I knew a change of heart had taken place. I felt different. I was different."
In questioning Carson's religious awakening, Trump said in Fort Dodge that Carson went into the bathroom and came out, "and now he's religious."
"And the people of Iowa believe him. Give me a break. Give me a break. It doesn't happen that way," Trump said. "Don't be fools."
Information for this article was contributed by Jill Colvin and Bill Barrow of The Associated Press and by Jenna Johnson of The Washington Post.
A Section on 11/14/2015