Trump, Carson talk autism during debate

Autism was a talked about topic during CNN's televised Republican debate Wednesday night.

Jake Tapper started the conversation with a question to Dr. Ben Carson.

"A backlash against vaccines was blamed for a measles outbreak in California. Dr. Carson…Donald Trump has publicly and repeatedly linked childhood vaccines to autism, which, as you know, the medical community adamantly disputes. You're a pediatric neurosurgeon, should Mr. Trump stop saying this?"

Carson responded, "Well, let me put it this way, there have been numerous studies, and they have not demonstrated that there is any correlation between vaccinations and autism," he said. "This was something that was spread widely 15 to 20-years ago and it has not been adequately revealed to the public what's actually going on."

"Vaccines are very important - certain ones - the ones that would prevent death or crippling," Carson continued. "There are others - a multitude of vaccines - that probably don't fit into that category and there should be some discretion in those cases."

Tapper then posed a question to Trump. "Mr. Trump," he said. "As president you would be in charge of the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health, both say you are wrong. How would you handle this as president?"

Trump answered, "Autism has become an epidemic. 25-years-ago, 35-years-ago, you look at the statistics, not even close. It has gotten totally out of control. I am totally in favor of vaccines. But I want smaller doses over a longer period of time," said Trump. "Because you take a baby, and I've seen it, and I've seen it, and I had my children taken care of, over a long period of time, over a two or three year period of time, same exact amount, but you take this little beautiful baby, and you pump, I mean, it looks just like it's meant for a horse, not for a child."

Trump then stated that a child of one of his employees received the vaccine and, "came back and a week later got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic."

"I'm in favor of vaccines," he said. "Do them over a longer period of time, same amount, but just in little sections. I think you're going to have -- I think you're going to see a big impact on autism."

Carson responded, "He's an okay doctor. But you know, the fact of the matter is, we have extremely well documented evidence that there is no autism associated with vaccinations. But it is true, that we are probably giving way too many in too short a period of time and a lot of pediatricians now recognize that and I think are cutting down on the number and the proximity in which those are done."

"And that's all I'm saying, Jake," said Trump.