After months avoiding a head-to-head fight, Donald Trump and Ben Carson are in each other’s crosshairs, with Trump vowing to "finish" the budding feud after the former neurosurgeon questioned Trump’s commitment to Christianity.
"I think he started it, so, remember, I like to finish it," Trump said during an appearance on "The View."
The back-and-forth comes after Carson told reporters in Anaheim, Calif., Wednesday night that the main difference between himself and the GOP frontrunner is religious faith.
"I’ve realized where my success has come from, and I don’t in any way deny my faith in God," Carson said.
Trump shot back, both on The View and in an interview with FOX News, saying that Carson is "not a great religious figure" himself.
"You know, in all fairness, I don’t know so much about his faith. All of a sudden he became a man of great faith. I didn’t notice this 4 or 5 years ago," he said.
Trump also said that Carson — the first surgeon to separate conjoined twins — is merely an "okay doctor."
Carson told the Washington Post that he’s not interested in engaging in a conflict with Trump, suggesting that the notion of a battle between the two candidates is largely media-driven.
"The media frequently wants to goad people into wars, into gladiator fights, you know," he told the newspaper. "And I’m certainly not going to get into that."
Carson also said that he did not intend for his remarks about faith to be taken as an attack on Trump.
"I would like to say to him that the intention was not to talk to him but about what motivates me," he said about his religion comment. "If he took that as a personal attack on him, I apologize, it was certainly not the intent."
A new CNN/ORC poll out on Thursday showed Trump leading the GOP primary race at 32 percent, with Carson at 19 percent.
