Ben Carson, the former pediatric neurosurgeon who dropped out of the Republican presidential race last week, endorsed Donald Trump on Friday, praising his "guts" and "energy."
"There are two different Donald Trumps," Carson said at the billionaire's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. "There’s the one you see on the stage and there’s the one who is very cerebral, sits there and considers things very carefully. You can have a very good conversation with him. That’s the Donald Trump that you’re going to start seeing more and more of.”
Trump agreed with that assessment.
"I probably do agree. There’s the public version … it seems to have worked over my lifetime," he said. "I think it’s different than the personal one."
Moments later, though, Trump seemed to reject that idea.
"I don't think there are two Donald Trumps. I think there's one Donald Trump," he said.
When asked about Trump's past criticisms of his candidacy, Carson said, "We buried the hatchet. That was political stuff."
"We move on," he added.
Trump gave a rambling speech in Iowa in November in which he called Carson a "pathological" liar and compared it to child molestation.
"If you're a child molester, there’s no cure, they can’t stop you. Pathological, there’s no cure." Trump said at the time.
Carson said on Friday that he opposed to efforts within the Republican Party to derail Trump's candidacy.
"What I have seen recently is political operatives ... trying to thwart the will of the people," Carson said. "I want the political process to play out."
"Having his support totally gives credence to what I do," Trump said.
Chris Christie was the first former presidential candidate to back Trump after the New Jersey governor left the race.
