Ben Carson takes questions from the press on Thursday. Carson on the defensive over claims of past violence, pyramids

Ben Carson was put on the defensive on Thursday, with reporters pressing him about a series of reports that have sprung up questioning the factual accuracy of his past statements.

As Carson has gained in the polls, so has media scrutiny of the 64-year-old retired pediatric neurosurgeon and Republican presidential candidate, whose past and present statements have drawn no shortage of curiosity and interest.


On Thursday, during a stop on his book tour, Carson was pressed on everything from a report that questioned past claims of his physical violence toward others, an interview in which he appeared to struggle with the complexities of Cuban immigration policy in South Florida, and a rediscovered past speech in which he expressed his belief that the Great Pyramids of Giza were constructed by the biblical figure Joseph to store grain, not pharoahs' tombs.

A CNN reporter in particular tried to pry more details out of Carson after the network published a report titled "A tale of two Carsons" in which it could not corroborate the candidate's past claims in his books that he had acted violently in his childhood and adolescence toward his family and others —claims that are part of Carson's narrative of personal redemption.

Asked to be more specific about when the incidents occurred, Carson listed them in detail. “One of the ones where I threw a rock and broke someone’s glasses, that occurred when I was maybe about 7 or 8, the stabbing, attempted stabbing incident occurred when I was 13 or 14, the — what’s another incident? Give me another one," Carson asked a scrum of media on CNN in Miami during a book signing tour. “Trying to hit my mom in the head with a hammer? That was around the same time as the stabbing incident.”

The reporter pressed, saying the victims could not be located among nine friends, classmates and neighbors interviewed in the article.

“Well, why would you be able to find them? What makes you think you would be able to find them? Unless I tell you who they are. And if they come forward on their own, because of your story, that’s fine, but I’m not going to expose them," Carson responded.

Asked by another reporter whether he had the chance to take a look at the so-called wet foot, dry foot policy or related issues for which he appeared unprepared during a Miami Herald interview on Wednesday, Carson said that he had but that he wants to do "an in-depth deep dive."

"Because, see, it doesn’t make sense to me, quite frankly, the whole wet foot, dry foot thing doesn’t make sense to me. Because like I said, you catch them a mile off, you treat them differently than if they’re on the shore. And I also recognize that many people have taken advantage of that, and you know, gotten all kinds of benefits that perhaps they don’t deserve," the retired neurosurgeon explained. "There are other people who perhaps get denied things that they should have. You know, you need to dive into those things deeply, and I’m not sure that wet foot, dry foot is where the emphasis should be. The emphasis should be on people who are trying to escape an oppressive regime, how do we make sure people not appropriately doing it don’t take advantage of our generosity?"

On Wednesday, BuzzFeed unearthed a 1998 commencement speech the Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon gave at Andrews College in which he remarked that his "own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain."

"Now all the archaeologists think that they were made for the pharaohs’ graves. But, you know, it would have to be something awfully big if you stop and think about it. And I don’t think it’d just disappear over the course of time to store that much grain," Carson said in the video.

On Thursday, Carson defended his belief.

“Some people believe in the Bible, like I do, and don’t find that to be silly at all and believe that God created the Earth and don’t find that to be silly at all," Carson said. "The secular progressives try to ridicule it anytime it comes up, and they’re welcome to do that.”

Informed about Carson's pyramid theory on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," rival Donald Trump said, "I think I'll have to put that into my repertoire when I talk about Ben."

"That was a strange -- that was a strange deal," he remarked. "I learn a lot by watching your show, folks."