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DES MOINES — Iowa Republicans say Donald Trump's sneak attack on Ben Carson's religion won't work.

"It will fail miserably," said Mike Demastus, a pastor at Fort Des Moines Church of Christ. "For Donald Trump, as a name-only Presbyterian, to be criticizing somebody else for their faith statements is laughable. This is a guy who can't even quote a Bible scripture to someone."

Several influential Christian conservative leaders in Iowa, even those who publicly back GOP candidates other than Carson, came to the defense of the Seventh-day Adventist Church on Monday.

Trump touched off the controversy when he said at a campaign rally in Florida on Saturday: "I love Iowa. And, look, I don't have to say it, I'm Presbyterian. ... Boy, that's down the middle of the road, folks, in all fairness. I mean, Seventh-day Adventist, I don't know about. I just don't know about."

Trump didn't name Carson, then he denied in an interview on ABC's This Week on Sunday that he was trying to plant seeds of doubt about his chief rival, who's now the front-runner in Iowa, polls show. But Republican caucusgoers say they got the message.

 

"He cast questions about Carson," said Andrea VanBeek, a 63-year-old Orange City Republican who intends to caucus for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. "In some ways, he's pretty smart in the way he says things without saying them, you know."

The Des Moines Register, in an article published Saturday about the 100 days until the Iowa caucuses, had noted that some conservatives have argued Seventh-day Adventists aren't Christians.

Trump's support in Iowa has plunged, although he remains securely in second place, according to a Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll and three other recent Iowa surveys.