ranted about how everyone else is wrong on illegal immigration and how even the " geniuses at Harvard " have now backed his way of thinking. He accused Hillary Rodham Clinton of playing the " woman ' s card , " and said Marco Rubio is " weak like a baby . " He signed a book for an audience member and then threw it off the stage . He forgot to take questions like he promised . And he spent more than 10 minutes angrily attacking his chief rival, Ben Carson , at
one point calling him " pathological , damaged. "
Gone was the candidate ' s recent bout of
composure and control on the campaign trail . As Trump ranted on and on , campaign staffers with microphones who were supposed to take questions from the audience instead took a seat, trying to cheer their boss here and there . The audience laughed at times and clapped for many of Trump ' s sharp insults . But an hour
and 20 minutes into the speech , people who were standing on risers on the stage behind Trump sat down . The applause came less often and less loud . As Trump skewered Carson in deeply personal language , a sense of discomfort settled on the crowd of roughly 1 , 500. Several
people shook their heads or whispered to their neighbors .
Carson wrote in his autobiography that as a
young man he had a "pathological temper " that caused him to violently attack others - - going after his mother with a hammer and trying to stab a friend, only to have the blade stopped and broken by the friend' s belt buckle . In recent days, those accounts have come under scrutiny, and Carson has had to clarify or correct some of the details.
Trump said he doesn ' t believe Carson is telling the truth and questioned how a belt buckle could stop a blade . He stepped away from the podium and acted out how he imagined such an attack would happen , with his own belt buckle flopping around. He asked if anyone in the audience had a knife to try out his theory. His Secret Service agents , who just joined his detail
this week , stood guard .
"Carson is an enigma to me, " Trump said . "He said that he' s ' pathological ' and that he ' s got , basically , pathological disease . . . I don ' t want a person that' s got pathological disease . " Trump repeatedly said he doesn ' t believe there ' s any cure for such a disease , and he said he doesn ' t believe that Carson was truly changed by divine intervention , as he writes in
his book. "If you ' re a child molester - - a sick puppy - - a child molester , there ' s no cure for that, " Trump said. " If you ' re a child molester , there ' s no cure . They can ' t stop you . Pathological? There ' s no cure . " And yet Carson is doing well in the polls ,
Trump said in disbelief . "How stupid are the people of Iowa?" Trump said. " How stupid are the people of the country
to believe this crap ?"
Trump started the speech looking exhausted , his voice hoarse . This was his fourth state in four days. A sense of anger built as Trump listed off everything wrong with the country and everything wrong with his rivals . His voice got louder and stronger , his hands gripping the podium. He would be a unifier , he said , a winner . Then he wondered aloud if he should just move to Iowa and buy a farm . "I ' ve really enjoyed being with you , " Trump said as he drew to a sudden but long awaited end. "It' s sad in many ways because we ' re talking about so many negative topics , but in
certain ways it ' s beautiful . It' s beautiful . "
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