WASHINGTON — Dr. Ben Carson on Sunday continued to blast those scrutinizing his past, refusing to offer up the one person who might help corroborate stories from his youth — his older brother, Curtis.
“My brother’s not interested in talking to the media. And a number of other people aren’t either, that I’ve talked to,” Carson told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Curtis Carson, 65, is an aeronautical engineer who lives in Georgia. His mother, Sonya, is sick with Alzheimer’s Disease.
No one has stepped forward to verify the former neurosurgeon’s dramatic stories of overcoming a violent temper – including hitting someone with a lock, going after his mom with a hammer, and trying to stab a friend who was saved by his belt buckle.
“None of the things are lies,” Carson declared on ABC’s “This Week.”
The soft-spoken Carson claims such episodes were crucial to his spiritual transformation, which he detailed in his 1990 autobiography “Gifted Hands.”
Carson said he’s targeted because he’s “a very big threat” to the “secular progressive movement in this country” and because he’s “most likely to be able to beat Hillary Clinton.”
“It’s not particularly getting under my skin, obviously it’s helping me,” he insisted at a rally in Puerto Rico Sunday, where he called for “unequivocal support of statehood” and immediate action from Congress, echoing similar calls by Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio to make it the 51st state.
He boasted on Twitter over the weekend the “biased media” helped him net $3.5 million in donations last week alone – the most tense for his campaign.
Near the top of national GOP polls and facing security threats, Carson said he’s now under protection from the Secret Service.
“The way it works, you don’t get secret service protection unless there are credible threats,” Carson told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Carson has drawn fire for claims he was offered full scholarship to West Point after meeting with General William Westmoreland in Detroit — even though the military academy does not offer
scholarships and said it had no record he applied for admission.
The Wall Street Journal couldn’t find proof Carson protected white kids from riots in Detroit following the death of Martin Luther King Jr. The Journal also questioned Carson’s claim that he was lauded for being the most honest student in a “Perceptions 301” class at Yale.
As proof of its existence, Carson Sunday posted a student newspaper article citing the class to offer proof it existed – but didn’t offer evidence that he was enrolled in it.
Carson also jabbed chief rival Donald Trump for publicly questioning his stories.
“I would not be anxious to have a commander in chief who acted that way,” he said.
But Trump on Sunday didn’t let up, “Belt buckles really pretty much don’t stop a stabbing … It’s pretty lucky if that happened, Trump said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
He also called into question Carson’s mental state.
“I can say that I never tried to hit my mother in any way, shape, or form,” Trump added on ABC’s “This Week.”
“He said he has pathological disease in the book. When you have pathological disease, that’s a very serious problem because that’s not something that’s cured.”
But Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) came to Carson’s defense Sunday – somewhat — and scrutiny of his past is unfair.
“I think it might be a better idea, I know it’s a crazy idea, but maybe we focus on the issues impacting the American people,” Sanders told NBC’s “Meet the Press