Trump hits Carson’s abortion ‘contradiction’

Donald Trump early Tuesday attacked a surging Ben Carson on abortion, suggesting the retired neurosurgeon has “an unusual stance” on the divisive topic.

{mosads}”You look at different things having to do with Ben and there’s a lot of contradiction,” Trump said during a phone interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“Ben, he was pro-abortion not so long ago, as everybody has told me,” Trump said. “And all of a sudden he’s so hard on abortion, under no circumstances, virtually.

“That’s an unusual stance,” said Trump, who has said he is in favor of abortion exceptions in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at risk.

Trump, who described himself in 1999 as “very pro-choice,” has gone after Carson on the topic before but is hitting the issue again as Carson surges in recent polling.

Carson surpassed Trump in the early voting state of Iowa in several polls released in the past week, and a New York Times/CBS News poll released Tuesday found him edging out the real estate tycoon nationally. Carson leads Trump by more than 20 points among evangelicals, according to that new poll.

Trump, who will appear alongside him Wednesday night at the next GOP debate, suggested Tuesday that Carson will face intense scrutiny now that he is viewed as a front-runner.

“And they’ll look at lots of other things, including what happened in hospitals and what he was working on,” Trump said on MSNBC.