Esteemed doctor and Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson made an outlandish claim that he once tried to stab a friend when he was young, but Carson now says it was actually a family member.
CNN tried to verify Carson's slasher tale, but none of the associates of Carson they spoke to could corroborate it. Carson responded yesterday by implying that CNN couldn't verify his claims because he actually tried to stab a "close relative," not a friend.
"I never use the true names of people in books, you know, to protect the innocent," he said. "That's something that people have done for decades, for centuries. That's something that's commonly done. The person that I tried to stab, I talked to today and said, 'Would they want to be revealed?' They were not anxious to be revealed, and it was a close relative of mine. I didn't want to put their lives under the spotlight."
I guess that makes it all better. Or worse. Who knows? I have no idea how Republican primary voters will respond to this. It's possible a significant portion of them have also stabbed or attempted to stab a family member. How exactly do you try and fail to stab someone?
I remain skeptical that it ever happened. I also don't believe he was held up at a "Popeye's Organization."