Ben Carson: I don't want to get into a gladiator fight with Trump

“The media frequently wants to goad people into wars, into gladiator fights, you know,” he said. “And I’m certainly not going to get into that.”…

“Everyone is going to be saying, ‘Oh there’s a big fight, everyone come watch the fight,’” he said. “But it’s just not going to be as great as they think, because I’m not going to participate.”

In fact, he said the whole thing is a misunderstanding, and that he feels bad that Trump thought he was attacking him at all.

“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.”