Ben Carson's presidential campaign manager Barry Bennett and communications director Doug Watts have resigned.
Carson,
a retired neurosurgeon, has struggled in the polls since October when
he was rivaling Donald Trump for the lead in the Republican presidential
race. He has since fallen to 10% in the latest CNN/ORC poll, which ties
him for a distant third place with Marco Rubio, behind Trump and Ted
Cruz.
His campaign has been marked of late by public sniping
between Bennett and Watts with Armstrong Williams, Carson's business
manager and sometimes public surrogate who has no official role in the
campaign. Williams has criticized Bennett and Watts for not adequately
preparing the candidate for public appearances, especially on foreign
policy, an issue that has dominated the race in recent months.
Questions about the veracity
of Carson's compelling personal story, about his rise out of poverty in
Detroit to become perhaps the nation's most widely known neurosurgeon,
have also hounded him as he fell in the polls.
Bob
Dees, a foreign policy adviser to Carson, is now the campaign chairman.
Ed Brookover, a senior strategist, will be the new communications
director, Carson's National Finance Chairman Dean Parker said on CNN.
Carson's Iowa state director Ryan Rhodes said he will remain with the
campaign.
"Barry
Bennett and I have resigned from the Carson campaign effective
immediately," Watts said in a statement Thursday. "We respect the
candidate and we have enjoyed helping him go from far back in the field
to top tier status."
Watts added: "We are proud of our efforts for Dr. Carson and we wish him and his campaign the best of luck."
Carson's campaign has raised more than $23 million in the fourth quarter of 2015, his campaign said Wednesday, although it would not say how much cash it has on hand.
Carson last week pushed back against reports a campaign shakeup was imminent, although he did not discount the possibility.
"The
key word there is 'may.' We're always going to be looking at it. We're
always going to be evaluating how people are performing" Carson told CNN's Don Lemon. "No one is ever 100% guaranteed that they're always going to be there."
Campaign infighting
Bennett
and Watts have been unhappy with Williams' role with Carson, especially
as Williams publicly criticized the campaign's struggles, such as the
Republican Jewish Coalition speech where Carson repeatedly mispronounced the name of Palestinian group Hamas.
"His
campaign has to do a better job at preparing him," Williams said in an
interview with CNN earlier this month. "Don't give him speeches at the
last minute. It's not only on him, it's on them."
Read: Ben Carson campaign at war with itself
Responding to those comments, Bennett said of Williams: "I don't think he is always helpful. You always defend your candidate."
The resignations were first reported Thursday by the Des Moines Register
No comments:
Post a Comment