Ben Carson rips Ted Cruz for blowing off campaign lies about his dropping out of the race

Ben Carson isn't pulling any punches when it comes to what he feels is Ted Cruz's Benghazi moment on the ground in Iowa this week. Cruz may have won the Iowa Caucus, but many are calling into question last-minute tactics used by his staff. Voicemails released from precinct chairs reveal Cruz campaign staff asked the chairs to tell caucus voters that Ben Carson was leaving the race. Cruz responded with an apology and an excuse that his staff read a headline of a CNN story that alluded to Carson returning home but didn't read the details of the story to confirm it had nothing to do with him leaving the race.

When Carson was asked whether he was satisfied with the apology he replied simply, “not the way that I would have handled it.”

“I would have said if I didn’t agree with what’s being said — which he did say that — I would make sure that it didn’t happen again. And I would take corrective action,” Carson told radio host Todd Starnes BuzzFeed News reported. “Not to take corrective action is tacitly saying it’s OK, or it’s sort of like, as Hillary Clinton said after Benghazi, ‘What difference does it make?’ ” Carson continued referencing Clinton's testimony.

Starnes asked if Carson really thought that this kind of rumor mongering was as bad as the Benghazi attack, but Carson persisted that lapses in moral judgment or indifference are equal.

“Well, I’m not saying that it rises to the level of Benghazi,” he said. “I’m saying it’s the same kind of attitude, the attitude being it’s water under the bridge, it’s gone by, let’s not deal with it."

Listen to the full interview below: