Ben Carson takes the lead over Donald Trump in new national poll

The former neurosurgeon makes his stride

(Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press)

Ben Carson is leading Donald Trump in the latest New York Times/CBS News national poll released on Tuesday.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio received 8 percent, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and former Hewlett-Packard exec Carly Fiorina both received 7 percent of likely Republican votes.

Mr Carson and Mr Trump have recently exchanged barbs. With the real-estate mogul and billionair heir on the attack, he commented on Mr Carson's Seventh-day Adventist faith by saying "I just don't know about it."

When asked about his comment Mr Trump shrugged off criticism: "I just said I don't know about it. I said nothing about it. I would never say bad. I'd never say bad about any religion."

He also criticised Mr Carson for having "super low energy" during a speech in Miami.

Of course, the former neurosurgeon disputed this on NBC's "Meet the Press" by saying that when he was a youngster, he tried to attack folks with bats, bricks, hammers and even attempted to stab a man as a teen. Completely normal.

Pollers called 575 Republican voters October 21 through October 25. The margin of erroor is plus or minus six percentage points.

Both candidates will likely trade passive aggressive insults during October 28 in the third GOP debate on CNBC. Hopefully, they will share a Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders-like moment where the two embrace and Mr Carson makes a play for the vice presidential bid.