Dr. Ben Carson says he will reveal the identity of the close relative he allegedly tried to stab at age 14 if the press agrees to a few conditions.
During an interview with Yahoo News’ Katie Couric published on Friday, Carson said that he hasn’t revealed who the person is because the victim “doesn’t want to be thrust under the spotlight.”
“But I do have this deal to make. If the media will promise that they will not bother this person or any of the other people, and if they promise that they will be honest, truthful and apply everything to everyone equally from now on, I will reveal this person,” he told Couric. “Is that fair?”
Carson’s description of his youth was called into question recently after CNN was unable to corroborate a few violent incidents described by Carson in his books. The Republican presidential candidate then told reporters that he used a fake name for the person he says he tried to stab when he was 14 years old. He said the friend he referred to as “Bob” was actually a close relative.
“The person that I tried to stab I talked to today, said would they want to be revealed. They were not anxious to be revealed,” he told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly. “It was a close relative of mine and I didn’t want to put their lives under the spotlight.”
During his interview with Couric, Carson also responded to Donald Trump’s recent comments about the retired neurosurgeon’s descriptions of his violent youth. Trump said on CNN Thursday that Carson’s “pathological temper” could be compared to child molestation.
“It’s in the book that he’s got a pathological temper,” Trump said. “That’s a big problem because you don’t cure that.”
“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,” Trump continued.
Carson brushed off Trump’s remarks.
“Well, I guess someone needs to tell him what ‘pathological’ actually means. Because it doesn’t mean that it can’t be cured. So, perhaps some of his advisers can actually go talk to some people who understand what that term means and educate him, and then he wouldn’t say things like that,” Carson told Couric.
Watch part of Couric’s interview with Carson via Yahoo News:
