Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, in defending against criticisms of his relaxed demeanor on the campaign trail, opened up about his past "volatile" behavior during an interview that aired Sunday. 
 
 "I have plenty of energy. But, you know, I am soft-spoken. I do have a tendency to be relaxed. I wasn't always like that. There was a time when I was, you know, very volatile," Carson told NBC News. "But, you know, I changed." 
 
 The retired neurosurgeon went on to explain that "as a teenager, I would go after people with rocks, and bricks, and baseball bats, and hammers." He also spoke about the time, at 14 years old, when he "tried to stab someone" -- a well-known story of Carson attacking a friend during an argument over preferred radio stations. He missed: the knife hit the teenager's belt buckle and snapped. 
 
 "Fortunately, you know, my life has been changed," Carson added. "And I'm a very different person now." 
 
 When pressed on some of his controversial statements, Carson said that "as people get to know me, they know that I'm not a hateful, pathological person like some people try to make me out to be. 
 
 "That will be self-evident," he added. "So I don't really worry about that." 
 
 In the wide-ranging interview on NBC News, the Republican contender also spoke about gun control and his stance in staunchly backing the Second Amendment. 
 
 "Noah Webster said that America would never suffer under tyranny if people were armed," Carson said, repeating an oft-quoted line from the campaign trail. But, "of course, we should be thinking about what can we do to keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of mentally unstable people." The two things, Carson added, "are not incompatible." 
 
 Carson also weighed in on the debate over abortion, just as Republicans in Congress launched a panel to investigate women's health care provider Planned Parenthood. 
 
 He is in favor of considering exceptions to his belief that abortion should be illegal, particularly if the health of the mother was at stake. 
 
 "If in that very rare situation it occurred, I believe there's room to discuss that," Carson told NBC News. 
 
 But for exceptions like rape and incest, Carson "would not be in favor of killing a baby because the baby came about in that way." 
 
 "All you have to do is go and look up the many stories of people who have led very useful lives who were the result of rape or incest," he added. 
 
 The presidential hopeful added that if a woman simply had an unwanted pregnancy, they should not have the right to terminate it. He compared it to slavery, despite acknowledging that "I know that's one of those words you're not supposed to say, but I'm saying it." 
 
 "During slavery, a lot of the slave owners thought that they had the right to do whatever they wanted to that slave. Anything that they chose to do," Carson said. "What if the abolitionist had said, you know, 'I don't believe in slavery. I think it's wrong. But you guys do whatever you want to do?' Where would we be?" ||||| Lindsey Graham channels his inner comedian and Howard Beale with bonkers "SNL" bit: "How am I losing to these people?" Carson "tried to kill someone at 14," Donald Trump is "crazy as hell," and Graham can't understand how he's losing 
 
 South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is not going to be the next president, but perhaps what he's really running for is a permanent seat on the "Morning Joe" panel. 
 
 In a frankly bonkers interview on MSNBC this morning -- filled with biting takedowns of the rest of the GOP field, especially Ben Carson, Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, but also what almost seemed like a stand-up routine complete with classic "Saturday Night Live" references -- Graham spoke with the kind of honesty you're only allowed when you're polling at 1 percent and on Monday morning basic cable. 
 
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 For his first joke, he busted out a Bernie Sanders Goes To Moscow routine. "Can I give you my take on this race?" he asked. "You have two front-runners on the Democratic side, right? The No. 2 went to the Soviet Union on his honeymoon -- and I don't think he ever came back. The leader felt that she was flat broke after her husband was president for eight years -- and that's maybe why they stole the China." 
 
 Then he turned to Donald Trump and Ben Carson, saying "on our side, you've got the No. 2 guy [saying he] tried to kill someone at 14 and the No. 1 is high energy and crazy as hell. How am I losing to these people?" 
 
 "How am I losing to these people?" alludes, of course, to the 1988 "SNL" debate parody in which a moderator turns to Michael Dukakis after a George Bush points-of-light word-collage and asks for his reaction. Dukakis is in disbelief: 
 
 Graham was also asked about abortion. "Is it possible for a Republican to get elected president if they have the position Marco Rubio has on abortion, which is to say no exceptions, even in the case of rape, incest and life of the mother?" wondered John Heilemann. 
 
 The senator replied that he is "pro-life," but that he "would never tell a woman who has been raped she's got to carry the child of the rapist. Eighty-three percent of the American people feel like that goes too far. So if you would veto a bill that had an exception for rape or incest -- you know, I appreciate your passion for the pro-life issue, but you're outside of the main stream and you cannot get elected. Anybody with that position will get creamed. I think you lose 350 electoral votes. 
 
 Watch the entire interview below via MSNBC.
– Ben Carson has admitted he used to "go after people with rocks, and bricks, and baseball bats, and hammers" and that he almost stabbed someone when he was a teen. Donald Trump is … well, Donald Trump. And Lindsey Graham is completely baffled how he's not making inroads in the 2016 presidential race against these two. "On our side, you've got the No. 2 guy tried to kill someone at 14, and the No. 1 is high energy and crazy as hell. How am I losing to these people?" he asked Monday in what Salon calls a "frankly bonkers interview" on MSNBC's Morning Joe. Graham's bluntness—the type "you're only allowed when you’re polling at 1% and on Monday morning basic cable"—is an allusion, Salon notes, to a 1988 Saturday Night Live parody that featured a bewildered Michael Dukakis (played by Jon Lovitz) proclaiming, "I can't believe I'm losing to this guy" ("this guy" being George Bush, played by Dana Carvey). Graham also had something to say about the Democratic contenders, per Real Clear Politics: "You've got the two front-runners on the Democratic side, right? The No. 2 guy went to the Soviet Union on his honeymoon, and I don't think he ever came back. The leader thought that she was flat-broke after her husband was president for eight years. And that's maybe why they stole the china." (Graham's really got the hang of zingers.)