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Carson: Mannatech controversy is a 'submarine' sent by rival campaign

By Nick Gass

Ben Carson dismissed a recent National Review piece calling him out on "bald-faced lies" about his relationship with supplement company Mannatech, chalking it up to a "submarine" sent by another Republican campaign on the debate stage.

"Well they're concerned about me. That obviously comes from somebody else on that debate stage. That's a submarine that's sent by them," Carson said in an interview Tuesday with Stephen Bannon on Sirius XM's "Breitbart News Daily." "They're very concerned about me and they're using the National Review as their political tool. That's pretty obvious."

That does not exactly narrow it down, but the retired neurosurgeon declined to elaborate on which campaign might be responsible.

In the column written by Jim Geraghty, the author recounts speaking in the past with Carson's business manager Armstrong Williams who he said "had no idea" about any of the controversies surrounding the company, including charges from then-Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott alleging unlawful and misleading sales practices.

"So you believe the National Review was used — that information was leaked or somehow was put in by another campaign and given to National Review to be weaponized?" Bannon asked Carson, who replied, "Oh yeah. Absolutely."

During last week's debate, Carson flatly denied "an involvement" with Mannatech, calling claims to the contrary "total propaganda."

"I did a couple of speeches for them, I do speeches for other people. They were paid speeches. It is absolutely absurd to say that I had any kind of a relationship with them. Do I take the product? Yes. I think it’s a good product," he said.

Geraghty called similar arguments from Carson and Williams "sophistry," adding that "the Speaker’s Bureau just transfers the money from the group to the speaker; Carson spoke to the group four times and talked about the company’s 'glyconutrient' products in a PBS special as recently as last year."

As Breitbart noted earlier this week, that program was not sponsored by Mannatech, but rather by the Platinum Group, which distributes the company's products.

“There was no contract between me as the producer of the PBS special presentation and Dr. Carson, the host of the program. There was, however, a gentleman’s agreement. Both committed and agreed to do it, and we kept our word,” the producer of the January 2014 special told Breitbart.